Bangladesh votes on Sunday for a general election guaranteed to give Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina a fifth term in office, after a massive wave of arrests boycotted opposition parties.
Under the leadership of Ms. Hasina's party, the Awami League, the world's eighth-most populous country, once plagued by extreme poverty, has seen accelerated growth. But the government is also accused of systematic human rights violations and ruthless suppression of the opposition.
The Amawi League has virtually no opponents in the constituencies in which it contests. However, some of them failed to field candidates, apparently in an attempt to prevent the unicameral parliament from being seen as an instrument of a single party.
Some voters said they were threatened with confiscation of their government social security cards, which they need to receive benefits, if they refused to vote for the Awami League.
“They told me they would confiscate it if I didn't vote,” Lal Mia, 64, who votes in Faridpur district in the center of the country, told AFP. “They said since the government is feeding us, we have to vote for it.”
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and other parties unsuccessfully protested last year to demand the prime minister's resignation and promote a neutral caretaker government to oversee the election.
According to the party, in a wave of repression that followed, some 25,000 opposition cadres, including all local leaders of the BNP, were arrested. The government, for its part, reported 11,000 arrests.
On Friday, several hundred opposition supporters marched through central Dhaka, a far cry from the hundreds of thousands of people who took part in rallies last year.
170 million inhabitants
The political scene in the country of 170 million has long been dominated by the rivalry between Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of the country's founder, and Khaleda Zia, a two-time prime minister and wife of a former military leader.
Ms. Hasina, 76, has dominated since returning to power in 2009, tightening her control after two elections marred by irregularities and allegations of fraud.
Khaleda Zia, 78, was convicted of corruption in 2018 and is being held in a hospital in the capital Dhaka due to her poor health.
His son Tarique Rahman leads the BNP in his place from London, where he has lived in exile since 2008 after several convictions in his country.
He told AFP that his party, along with dozens of others, had refused to take part in an election whose outcome was “predetermined”.
“Participating in elections under Ms. Hasina contrary to the aspirations of the Bangladeshi people would undermine the sacrifices of those who fought, shed their blood and gave their lives for democracy,” he said.
Sheikh Hasina accused the BNP of arson and sabotage during the largely peaceful protests in which several people were killed in clashes with police.
Bangladesh's security forces have long been accused of excessive use of force, something the Bangladesh government denies.
The United States, Bangladesh's biggest export market, has sanctioned an elite police force and its commanders accused of numerous extrajudicial killings and disappearances.
The success of her economic policies has long ensured Sheikh Hasina's popularity. But the difficulties have multiplied recently, with rising prices for most basic goods and widespread power outages in 2022.
The refusal of garment workers to demand wage increases, a sector that generates 85% of the country's $55 billion in annual exports, sparked social unrest in late 2023, with factories burned and hundreds more closed.
The government is “less popular than it was a few years ago, but Bangladeshis have few real options at the polls,” notes Pierre Prakash of the International Crisis Group. These frustrations could portend political violence later, he believes. “It’s a potentially dangerous combination.”