Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to win a fourth consecutive term and fifth overall for her Awami League-led alliance in a general election on Sunday that was boycotted by the main opposition party and marked by violence before the vote win.
A student holds a poster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as they celebrate the foundation day of Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the Bangladesh Awami League, at Dhaka University. (Portal)Voting begins at 8 a.m. (0200 GMT) and ends at 4 p.m. (1000 GMT). The counting will begin shortly after voting ends, with the first results expected early Monday.
End the past year and prepare for 2024 with HT! Click here
Rights groups say the country of 170 million is heading toward virtual one-party rule following a boycott by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and some of its smaller allies.
The United States and Western nations, key customers of its garment industry, have called for free and fair elections – the country's 12th since independence in 1971.
Around 120 million voters will choose from almost 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 supported “dummy candidates” as independents to try to make the election appear credible, a claim the ruling party denies.
The BNP, which also boycotted the 2014 election but took part in 2018, urged people to avoid the vote and called for a nationwide two-day strike starting Saturday.
Hasina, who has rejected BNP calls to resign and hand over power to a neutral authority to conduct the elections, accuses the opposition of fomenting anti-government protests that have rocked Dhaka since late October and left at least 14 people dead .
Since the outcome of the election is almost certain and the risk of outbreaks of violence is high, voter turnout on Sunday could be low.
Violence broke out on the eve of the election when a fire broke out on a passenger train, which the government described as arson. At least four people were killed, while several polling stations and institutions were set on fire across the country.
Troops have deployed across Bangladesh to maintain peace, while nearly 800,000 police, paramilitary and police auxiliaries will guard polling stations on Sunday.
Hasina, 76, is credited with transforming Bangladesh's economy and garment industry during her last 15 years in power. But critics also accused her of authoritarianism, human rights violations, restrictions on freedom of expression and the suppression of dissenting opinions.
Her main rival and two-time prime minister, BNP leader Khaleda Zia, is effectively under house arrest over corruption allegations that the opposition says were fabricated.
Khaleda's son, Tarique Rahman, is the party's acting leader, but he is in exile and faces allegations that he denies.
The economy has also slowed sharply since the war between Russia and Ukraine drove up prices for fuel and food imports and forced Bangladesh to turn to the International Monetary Fund for a $4 bailout last year .7 billion US dollars. (Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly and Ruma Paul; Editing by Giles Elgood)