Bangladesh goes to polls today amid boycott by Oppn; PM Hasina poised to win 4th term

Bangladeshis on Sunday (January 7) began voting in the general elections expected to be won by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the absence of the main Opposition BNP which is boycotting it.

Voting began at 8 am local time and will continue till 5 pm.

A total of 119.6 million registered voters are eligible to vote at Sunday's polls in more than 42,000 polling stations, according to the country’s Election Commission.

The voting is being held in 299 out of 300 constituencies. The election to one centre will be held later as a candidate died there.

More than 1,500 candidates from 27 political parties are contesting in the election besides 436 independent candidates.

Over 100 foreign observers, including three from India, will monitor the 12th general election, which is being held under tight security.

The election commission said it expected the results to start flowing from early on January 8.

Hasina, 76, has been in power since 2009 and her Awami League won the last election in December 2018.

The BNP boycotted the 2014 election but joined the one in 2018.

Prime Minister Hasina's ruling Awami League is expected to win for a straight fourth time as the main Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former premier Khaleda Zia, 78, who is under house arrest as a convict of graft charges, boycotted the polls.

The BNP is observing a 48-hour nationwide general strike which began at 6 am on Saturday and will end at 6 am on Monday.

The 27 political parties that are contesting the elections include the opposition Jatiya Party (JAPA). The rest are members of the ruling Awami League-led coalition, which experts dub as "satellite parties."

BNP boycott

As part of its vote boycott campaign, BNP has been calling countrywide general strikes. It has enforced intermittent transport blockades and strikes for the past three months. The party has been claiming no election under the incumbent government would be fair and credible.

BNP spokesman Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said the strike was aimed at pressing for their demands for "resignation of the illegal government, establishment of a non-party neutral government and release of all party leaders and activists from prison".

Ahead of the elections, Hasina's government arrested tens of thousands of rival politicians and supporters, a move which rights groups have condemned as an attempt to paralyse the Opposition.

Authorities deployed Army troops across the country two days ago "in aid of civil administration" to maintain peace and order during the voting.

Arson, violence

Despite the strict security arrangements, unidentified people carried homemade bomb and arson attacks in empty polling centres in four out of 64 administrative districts, while BNP activists clashed with police in another district, leaving five people wounded on Friday.

At least 14 arson attacks were reported in 16 hours till 9:30 am Saturday, according to Fire Service statistics.

At least four people were killed when a passenger train was torched by arsonists near Dhaka on Friday night. The BNP has demanded a UN-supervised investigation into the incident which it described as a "pre-planned" act of sabotage.

Detectives said they arrested eight persons, including Dhaka south city unit BNP joint convener Nabi Ullah Nabi, for their involvement in setting fire to the Benapole Express.

They claimed to have found involvement of the BNP and the activists of the Jubo Dal, the youth wing of the party, in last night's attack.

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Saturday said the government was playing with fire to make political gains by blaming the Opposition.

"This government out and out from head to neck is corrupt... This is not a democratic government. Development cannot be there without democracy. People's participation must be there...We are holding a peaceful movement. We never believe in violence and destroying people's property," Nitai Roy Chowdhury, Vice Chairman of BNP, said.

Awami League and its candidates are waging a campaign for higher voter turnout. Some observers say the ruling party wants to establish a narrative that the BNP is no longer relevant in Bangladesh’s democracy.

Political science professor and analyst Harunur Rashid said he feared Bangladesh might need to wait for an indefinite period to witness a congenial political atmosphere because of the highly conflicting nature between the two major parties.

Hasina has been in power since 2009 and won the last election in December 2018, in a poll marred by deadly violence and accusations of poll rigging.

The BNP boycotted the 2014 election but joined the one in 2018, which party leaders later said was a mistake, alleging the voting was marred with widespread rigging and intimidation.

BNP's boycott announcement this time, however, initially posed a challenge to Hasina on the legitimacy of the January 7 polls as JAPA also expressed its reluctance to join the fray but agreed to participate as the ruling party decided to spare them 26 seats.

'One-party rule likely'

Awami League also left six seats to its partners in the 14-party ruling alliance while Hasina encouraged independent and rebel candidates to contest to make the polling participatory and to avoid the new parliament being branded a one-party institution.

Senior BNP leader Abdul Moyeen Khan on Friday called the government efforts "childish", proving its "political bankruptcy".

Analysts and watchdogs, however, said the country of 170 million was heading for virtual one-party rule, while many voters said they found no charm in voting this time as the polling was set to reelect the incumbent government. Hasina has presided over one of the world’s fastest-growing economies in South Asia in the past 15 years.

However, the economy faced turmoil in mid-2022 following a global economic slowdown, forcing her government to desperately seek the International Monetary Fund's support as the foreign reserves depleted as an energy crisis and high inflation triggered a balance of payments crisis.

Many fear that a fourth straight term for Hasina would worsen the economic situation, deepening their despair.

The polls have sharpened the country’s existing political divides. Many experts say that economic stability and geopolitics are likely to emerge as major challenges for the new government alongside domestic politics.

“The issue of economic stability will be the major challenge. The new government will also face new dynamics of geopolitics,” Debopriya Bhattacharya of the economic and political watchdog Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) told PTI.

He said the government must take effective steps to kick off the growth rate, tame inflation, check corruption and money laundering and revitalise the dwindling foreign exchange reserve through structural reforms while the new government would have to rally enough mastery to face the challenges.

Bangladesh under the current government played a critical role in the Rohingya issue and won praise for the handling of the world’s biggest refugee crisis.

Over a million Rohingyas took shelter in the South Asian country after fleeing a 2017 Army crackdown at their homeland in Myanmar.

Hasina is also credited with skilfully negotiating the rival interests of India and China, as Bangladesh is virtually sandwiched between the two feuding Asian giants.

(With inputs from agencies)