Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) cites concerns over the fairness of the election.
AFP
The Election Commission said ballot boxes and other election supplies had been distributed in preparation for the vote on Sunday in over 42,000 precincts. There are more than 119 million registered voters. / Photo: AFP
Bangladesh’s main opposition party has started a 48-hour general strike on the eve on a general election, calling on people to boycott the vote because it says the government of incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina can’t guarantee its fairness.
Hasina is seeking to return to power for a fourth consecutive term. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by former premier Khaleda Zia, has vowed to disrupt the election through the strike and boycott.
Detectives arrested seven men belonging to the BNP and its youth wing for their alleged involvement in an arson attack on a passenger train on Friday night in which four people were killed, the head of Dhaka's Detective Branch, Harun Or Rashid, said on Saturday.
They were arrested in separate raids in the city, he said adding that the suspects held a meeting online two days ago about committing such attacks on polling stations and trains.
Campaigning in the nation of 169 million people has been marred by violence, with at least 15 people killed since October. Bangladesh is a parliamentary democracy but has a history of military coups and assassinations.
On Saturday morning, a small group of BNP supporters marched across the Shahbagh neighborhood in the capital, Dhaka, calling on people to join the strike. Another rally by about 200 left-wing protesters took place outside the National Press Club to denounce the election.
The Election Commission said ballot boxes and other election supplies had been distributed in preparation for the vote on Sunday in over 42,000 precincts. There are more than 119 million registered voters.
Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, a BNP senior official, repeated his party's demand for Hasina to resign, calling the election “skewed.”
“The government is again playing with fire. The government has resorted to its old tactics of holding a one-sided election,” he said.
Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal told reporters on Saturday that the parliamentary election would be free and fair, adding, “We want our election to be observed not only nationally, but internationally as well.”
Responding to questions on the main opposition shunning the vote, Awal said that had the BNP participated, the election would have been “more competitive” and “more festive." He acknowledged that the recent violence may have a negative impact on voters turning up on Sunday.
On Friday, an apparent arson attack on a train in Dhaka killed four people. Mahid Uddin, an additional police commissioner with the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said the fire was “clearly an act of sabotage” aimed at scaring people ahead of the election.
He did not name any political party or groups as suspects, but said police would seek those responsible.
Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen said in a statement on Saturday that the timing of the attack, just days before the election, was meant to hinder the democratic process. "This reprehensible incident, undoubtedly orchestrated by those with malicious intent, strikes at the very heart of our democratic values,” he said.
Police said a murder case was filed by a railway official on Saturday, accusing unidentified people as suspects.
Local media reported arsons targeting at least five polling stations outside Dhaka since Friday, with police calling them acts of sabotage.
Talha Bin Jasim, an official with the Media Cell of the Fire Service and Civil Defense in Dhaka, told The Associated Press by phone on Saturday night that at least 18 arson attacks had been reported from across the country since Friday midnight.
He said a small fire was reported early Saturday at a Buddhist monastery at Ramu area in southern Cox's Bazar district. Local media, quoting police in the area, said that it was not clear if it was merely a fire incident or an act of sabotage. Local authorities said they would investigate.
The Election Commission has asked authorities to increase security around polling stations.
Faruk Hossain, a spokesperson of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Associated Press police had reinforced security across Dhaka and that railway transportation was back to normal following Friday’s attack.
Bangladesh's increasingly polarized political culture has been dominated by a struggle between two powerful women, Hasina and Zia.
Zia, head of the BNP, is ailing and currently under house arrest. Her party says the charges of corruption are politically motivated, an allegation the government denied.
Tensions have spiked since October when violence broke out at a massive anti-government rally demanding Hasina’s resignation and a caretaker government to oversee the election. Hasina's administration said there was no constitutional provision to allow a caretaker government.
Critics have accused Hasina of systemically suffocating the opposition by implementing repressive security measures. Zia’s party claimed that more than 20,000 opposition supporters have been arrested, but the government said those figures were inflated and denied arrests were made due to political leanings. The attorney general put the figure between 2,000-3,000 while the law minister said the numbers were a bout 10,000.
SOURCE: AP
PM Hasina set to extend tenure as main Bangladesh opposition boycotts election
A student holds a placard of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as they celebrate the formation day of Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of Bangladesh Awami League, at the University of Dhaka, ahead of the general election in Dhaka, Bangladesh, January 4, 2024.
REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
DHAKA - Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to win a fourth straight term and the fifth overall for her Awami League-led alliance in a general election on Sunday boycotted by the main opposition party and marred by violence ahead of the vote.
Voting will begin at 8 a.m. (0200 GMT) and end at 4 p.m. (1000 GMT). Counting will start soon after the end of voting, with initial results expected by early Monday.
Rights groups say the country of 170 million is headed for virtual one-party rule, after the boycott by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and some of its smaller allies.
The United States and Western nations, important customers of its garment industry, have called for a free and fair election - the country's 12th since independence in 1971.
About 120 million voters will choose from nearly 2,000 candidates for the 300 directly elected parliamentary seats. There are 436 independent candidates, the most since 2001.
The BNP says the Awami League has propped up "dummy" candidates as independents to try to make the election look credible, a claim the ruling party denies.
The BNP, which also boycotted the 2014 poll but took part in 2018, has asked people to shun the poll and called a two-day strike nationwide from Saturday.
Hasina, who has refused BNP demands to resign and cede power to a neutral authority to run the election, accuses the opposition of instigating anti-government protests that have rocked Dhaka since late October and killed at least 14 people.
With the ballot outcome all but assured and high risk of violence, turnout could be low on Sunday.
Violence erupted on the eve of the election, with a passenger train fire, which the government called arson, killing at least four people while several polling booths and institutions were set ablaze around the country.
Troops have fanned out across Bangladesh to maintain peace while nearly 800,000 police, paramilitary and police auxiliaries will guard polling booths on Sunday.
In her last 15 years in power, Hasina, 76, has been credited with turning around Bangladesh's economy and the garment industry. But critics have also accused her of authoritarianism, human rights violations, crackdowns on free speech and suppression of dissent.
Her main rival and two-time premier, BNP leader Khaleda Zia, is effectively under house arrest on corruption charges the opposition says have been trumped up.
Khaleda's son, Tarique Rahman, is the acting chairman of the party, but he is in exile, facing charges that he denies.
The economy has also slowed sharply since the Russia-Ukraine war pushed up prices of fuel and food imports, forcing Bangladesh to turn to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout of $4.7 billion last year.
DHAKA - Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to win a fourth straight term and the fifth overall for her Awami League-led alliance in a general election on Sunday boycotted by the main opposition party and marred by violence ahead of the vote.
Voting will begin at 8 a.m. (0200 GMT) and end at 4 p.m. (1000 GMT). Counting will start soon after the end of voting, with initial results expected by early Monday.
Rights groups say the country of 170 million is headed for virtual one-party rule, after the boycott by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and some of its smaller allies.
The United States and Western nations, important customers of its garment industry, have called for a free and fair election - the country's 12th since independence in 1971.
About 120 million voters will choose from nearly 2,000 candidates for the 300 directly elected parliamentary seats. There are 436 independent candidates, the most since 2001.
The BNP says the Awami League has propped up "dummy" candidates as independents to try to make the election look credible, a claim the ruling party denies.
The BNP, which also boycotted the 2014 poll but took part in 2018, has asked people to shun the poll and called a two-day strike nationwide from Saturday.
Hasina, who has refused BNP demands to resign and cede power to a neutral authority to run the election, accuses the opposition of instigating anti-government protests that have rocked Dhaka since late October and killed at least 14 people.
With the ballot outcome all but assured and high risk of violence, turnout could be low on Sunday.
Violence erupted on the eve of the election, with a passenger train fire, which the government called arson, killing at least four people while several polling booths and institutions were set ablaze around the country.
Troops have fanned out across Bangladesh to maintain peace while nearly 800,000 police, paramilitary and police auxiliaries will guard polling booths on Sunday.
In her last 15 years in power, Hasina, 76, has been credited with turning around Bangladesh's economy and the garment industry. But critics have also accused her of authoritarianism, human rights violations, crackdowns on free speech and suppression of dissent.
Her main rival and two-time premier, BNP leader Khaleda Zia, is effectively under house arrest on corruption charges the opposition says have been trumped up.
Khaleda's son, Tarique Rahman, is the acting chairman of the party, but he is in exile, facing charges that he denies.
The economy has also slowed sharply since the Russia-Ukraine war pushed up prices of fuel and food imports, forcing Bangladesh to turn to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout of $4.7 billion last year.
REUTERS
US Pressures Bangladesh as Opposition Boycotts Election
Arun Devnath and Eltaf Najafizada
Fri, January 5, 2024
(Bloomberg) -- Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to extend her 15-year rule in a boycotted election on Sunday. The question now is whether Western governments led by the US will punish the country for its democratic backsliding and push it closer to China.
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The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the country’s largest opposition group, and its allies said they will boycott the polls, which they say are a sham. They’re concerned about vote-rigging and have been calling on Hasina to resign to make way for a caretaker administration that can oversee the election.
The US, the biggest buyer of Bangladesh’s exports, has become more vocal in its calls for a free and fair election, imposing visa curbs on members of Hasina’s ruling party and law enforcement officials in September. Hasina, 76, will need to prevent the US from taking harsher steps that could hurt the economy more directly and complicate the International Monetary Fund’s lending program.
“The US applied so much pressure on Bangladesh for free and fair elections, through both carrots and sticks, and for so long, yet to no avail,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Washington-based Wilson Center. “Consequently, there is a possibility that the administration could respond post-election with harsher steps.”
Those measures could be “punitive actions in the space that would hurt Bangladesh the most,” which is trade, Kugelman added.
About $9 billion, or roughly one-fifth, of Bangladesh’s clothing exports went to the US in 2022, with Walmart Inc. and Gap Inc. being the top buyers. The garment industry employs around 4 million workers and contributes about 10% to the $460 billion economy.
The political environment in Bangladesh has been tense for months. Opposition supporters have clashed with police in mass protests calling for Hasina to step down. Human Rights Watch said in a November report that almost 10,000 opposition activists were arrested since a planned rally by the BNP on Oct. 28. Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who Hasina views as an opponent, was this week given a six-month jail sentence by a Dhaka court in a case his supporters say was politically motivated.
Hasina said in a televised speech Thursday that her Awami League-led government has created stability over three terms, improving the quality of lives of people. The government believes in the principle of “friendship with all” at the international level, she said, and has improved institutions in the country to protect freedom and sovereignty.
The US has stepped up its calls for free and fair elections. In May last year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced new visa restrictions on any Bangladeshi citizens believed to be interfering in the elections, such as rigging votes or using intimidation or violence. In September, the US imposed visa curbs on unidentified officials of the ruling party, law enforcement and political opposition.
India has maintained strong ties with Hasina and is concerned that more assertive steps by the US will push Bangladesh closer to China, both of which already enjoy strong commercial and defense ties.
When India and US defense and foreign ministers met in November in New Delhi, Bangladesh’s elections and the US visa curbs figured prominently in the talks, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified since the discussions were private. India raised concerns with US officials that the sanctions could antagonize Hasina’s government, the people said.
Peter Haas, the US ambassador to Bangladesh, also made a quiet six-day visit to India in the last week of December, meeting senior officials in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office, the people said.
On Friday, a State Department spokesperson declined to comment on the US-India talks. The spokesperson said Haas was on personal travel over the holiday and didn’t meet Indian officials.
In a regular press briefing on Wednesday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US is watching the outcome of the Bangladesh elections “very closely” but wouldn’t speculate in advance on “what actions we may or may not take in response to any development.”
India and Bangladesh share a historic, cultural and linguistic ties, and New Delhi played a key role in the country’s independence from Pakistan in 1971 by deploying troops in support of the Bengali resistance force.
“As a close friend and partner of Bangladesh we would like to see peaceful elections there and we will continue to support Bangladesh’s vision for stable, peaceful and progressive nation,” Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said in his weekly press briefing on Dec. 29.
Economic Strains
Although still an impoverished country with 172 million people, Bangladesh has made economic progress under Hasina. The country is one of fastest-growing economies in Asia, poverty rates have steadily declined, and it has a higher per-capita income than India.
The pandemic and soaring commodity prices put the economy under strain in recent years, depleting its foreign exchange reserves and forcing Hasina to turn to the IMF for $4.7 billion in emergency loans. The economy is still facing dollar shortages, prompting Moody’s Investors Service and others to downgrade the nation’s credit ratings.
The currency fell almost 6% last year, among the worst performers in Asia. Stocks declined 5%. The country’s currency dealers currently set limits on the exchange rate.
“From the investor perspective, on top of the election outcome and post-election stability, eyes will be on the central bank’s action on stabilizing foreign exchange reserves and how the market responds,” said Salim Afzal Shawon, head of research at Dhaka-based BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage Ltd. “Investors will also assess how the US reacts after the election in terms of sanction possibilities.”
To keep the IMF funds coming, Hasina’s government has promised to raise taxes and interest rates. In December, the cash-strapped nation won approval from the IMF for the disbursement of $690 million in loans.
In its next review, “the IMF will likely be a bit more stringent with ensuring that the authorities meet the requirements,” Marcus Yiu, a Moody’s analyst, said in an interview. That would include fiscal reforms and freeing up the currency, he said.
The main opposition BNP said it will press on with its demands and urged supporters to avoid paying taxes in order to halt what they dub “farcical” elections.
With the opposition set to boycott the elections, Hasina’s win now looks inevitable and her ruling Awami League party will likely face off against independent candidates and parties such as the Jatiyo Party, which was founded by the late military ruler Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who took power in a coup in 1982.
Voters will elect 300 of the 350 seats in parliament in Sunday’s election. The remaining 50 seats are reserved exclusively for women and filled by a vote of 300 members, based on proportional representation.
If Hasina returns, as is likely, the risk is that she may “feel that she can conduct her governance in any way that she chooses, which leads to an abusive situation,” Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, said in an interview. “It leads to circumstances where there is no accountability whatsoever.”
--With assistance from Sudhi Ranjan Sen, Iain Marlow, Karl Lester M. Yap and Swati Gupta.
(Updates with State Department response in 13th paragraph.)
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Arun Devnath and Eltaf Najafizada
Fri, January 5, 2024
(Bloomberg) -- Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to extend her 15-year rule in a boycotted election on Sunday. The question now is whether Western governments led by the US will punish the country for its democratic backsliding and push it closer to China.
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The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the country’s largest opposition group, and its allies said they will boycott the polls, which they say are a sham. They’re concerned about vote-rigging and have been calling on Hasina to resign to make way for a caretaker administration that can oversee the election.
The US, the biggest buyer of Bangladesh’s exports, has become more vocal in its calls for a free and fair election, imposing visa curbs on members of Hasina’s ruling party and law enforcement officials in September. Hasina, 76, will need to prevent the US from taking harsher steps that could hurt the economy more directly and complicate the International Monetary Fund’s lending program.
“The US applied so much pressure on Bangladesh for free and fair elections, through both carrots and sticks, and for so long, yet to no avail,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Washington-based Wilson Center. “Consequently, there is a possibility that the administration could respond post-election with harsher steps.”
Those measures could be “punitive actions in the space that would hurt Bangladesh the most,” which is trade, Kugelman added.
About $9 billion, or roughly one-fifth, of Bangladesh’s clothing exports went to the US in 2022, with Walmart Inc. and Gap Inc. being the top buyers. The garment industry employs around 4 million workers and contributes about 10% to the $460 billion economy.
The political environment in Bangladesh has been tense for months. Opposition supporters have clashed with police in mass protests calling for Hasina to step down. Human Rights Watch said in a November report that almost 10,000 opposition activists were arrested since a planned rally by the BNP on Oct. 28. Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who Hasina views as an opponent, was this week given a six-month jail sentence by a Dhaka court in a case his supporters say was politically motivated.
Hasina said in a televised speech Thursday that her Awami League-led government has created stability over three terms, improving the quality of lives of people. The government believes in the principle of “friendship with all” at the international level, she said, and has improved institutions in the country to protect freedom and sovereignty.
The US has stepped up its calls for free and fair elections. In May last year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced new visa restrictions on any Bangladeshi citizens believed to be interfering in the elections, such as rigging votes or using intimidation or violence. In September, the US imposed visa curbs on unidentified officials of the ruling party, law enforcement and political opposition.
India has maintained strong ties with Hasina and is concerned that more assertive steps by the US will push Bangladesh closer to China, both of which already enjoy strong commercial and defense ties.
When India and US defense and foreign ministers met in November in New Delhi, Bangladesh’s elections and the US visa curbs figured prominently in the talks, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified since the discussions were private. India raised concerns with US officials that the sanctions could antagonize Hasina’s government, the people said.
Peter Haas, the US ambassador to Bangladesh, also made a quiet six-day visit to India in the last week of December, meeting senior officials in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office, the people said.
On Friday, a State Department spokesperson declined to comment on the US-India talks. The spokesperson said Haas was on personal travel over the holiday and didn’t meet Indian officials.
In a regular press briefing on Wednesday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US is watching the outcome of the Bangladesh elections “very closely” but wouldn’t speculate in advance on “what actions we may or may not take in response to any development.”
India and Bangladesh share a historic, cultural and linguistic ties, and New Delhi played a key role in the country’s independence from Pakistan in 1971 by deploying troops in support of the Bengali resistance force.
“As a close friend and partner of Bangladesh we would like to see peaceful elections there and we will continue to support Bangladesh’s vision for stable, peaceful and progressive nation,” Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said in his weekly press briefing on Dec. 29.
Economic Strains
Although still an impoverished country with 172 million people, Bangladesh has made economic progress under Hasina. The country is one of fastest-growing economies in Asia, poverty rates have steadily declined, and it has a higher per-capita income than India.
The pandemic and soaring commodity prices put the economy under strain in recent years, depleting its foreign exchange reserves and forcing Hasina to turn to the IMF for $4.7 billion in emergency loans. The economy is still facing dollar shortages, prompting Moody’s Investors Service and others to downgrade the nation’s credit ratings.
The currency fell almost 6% last year, among the worst performers in Asia. Stocks declined 5%. The country’s currency dealers currently set limits on the exchange rate.
“From the investor perspective, on top of the election outcome and post-election stability, eyes will be on the central bank’s action on stabilizing foreign exchange reserves and how the market responds,” said Salim Afzal Shawon, head of research at Dhaka-based BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage Ltd. “Investors will also assess how the US reacts after the election in terms of sanction possibilities.”
To keep the IMF funds coming, Hasina’s government has promised to raise taxes and interest rates. In December, the cash-strapped nation won approval from the IMF for the disbursement of $690 million in loans.
In its next review, “the IMF will likely be a bit more stringent with ensuring that the authorities meet the requirements,” Marcus Yiu, a Moody’s analyst, said in an interview. That would include fiscal reforms and freeing up the currency, he said.
The main opposition BNP said it will press on with its demands and urged supporters to avoid paying taxes in order to halt what they dub “farcical” elections.
With the opposition set to boycott the elections, Hasina’s win now looks inevitable and her ruling Awami League party will likely face off against independent candidates and parties such as the Jatiyo Party, which was founded by the late military ruler Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who took power in a coup in 1982.
Voters will elect 300 of the 350 seats in parliament in Sunday’s election. The remaining 50 seats are reserved exclusively for women and filled by a vote of 300 members, based on proportional representation.
If Hasina returns, as is likely, the risk is that she may “feel that she can conduct her governance in any way that she chooses, which leads to an abusive situation,” Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, said in an interview. “It leads to circumstances where there is no accountability whatsoever.”
--With assistance from Sudhi Ranjan Sen, Iain Marlow, Karl Lester M. Yap and Swati Gupta.
(Updates with State Department response in 13th paragraph.)
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