Bangladesh elections: PM Hasina “confident” of win

Bangladesh's Election Commission is investigating allegations of vote rigging coming from across the country on Sunday, a spokesman told Reuters, as polling for a general election marred by violence drew to a close.

Clashes between supporters of the ruling Awami League and its opponents have killed at least 10 and wounded more than 20, police said. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said one of its candidates from Dhaka was stabbed while he was moving around in his constituency. Police said the circumstances of the attack on Salahuddin Ahmed were not yet clear.

The Election Commission said it would act if rigging was confirmed in the first fully competitive general election in a decade.“Allegations are coming from across the country and those are under investigation,” commission spokesman SM Asaduzzaman said. “If we get any confirmation from our own channels then measures will be taken as per rules”.

Reuters reporters across the country of 165 million people saw sparse turnout at polling booths during the election, widely expected to be won by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, giving her a third straight term in office.

Mobile internet was blocked and the streets of the capital were largely deserted as many had left to vote in their home towns. In nine polling centres Reuters reporters visited in Dhaka, posters bearing the Awami League's “boat” symbol far outnumbered those of the opposition.

Mahbub Talukdar, one of the five election commissioners who stirred a controversy last week by saying there was no level-playing field for the parties, told Reuters he did not see any opposition polling agents near the Dhaka booth where he voted, suggesting they had been kept away. "I am receiving similar complaints from across the country on phone, but what can I do alone?," he said.

Clashes

The clashes in the Muslim-majority country broke out between workers of the Awami League and its opponents, led by the BNP of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. At least one of the victims was attacked by a machete-carrying group, police said, adding a man from a paramilitary auxiliary force also died.

Alleging vote manipulation, at least six candidates fighting against the Awami League withdrew from the contest in Khulna, a divisional headquarters 300 km (186 miles) southwest of Dhaka.

Rasel, a 34-year-old voter in the southeastern district of Chittagong, said he saw police and some Awami League workers he knew stopping people from entering one polling centre. "They told me that 'voting is going on nicely, you don't need to go inside'. If you try to enter, you will be in trouble',” Rasel, who declined to give his second name fearing reprisals, told Reuters by phone.

The local electoral officer said he had investigated the incident and “found long queue in these centres and people were casting votes with a festive mood”. The Awami League said opposition supporters were wrongly accusing the party.

“Bangladesh TV channels showing peaceful elections, few isolated incidents,” Hasina's son and Awami League member Sajeeb Wazed said on Twitter. “Yet opposition increase false allegations of irregularities. Trying controversy as opinion polls show landslide for governing party.”

Hasina confident

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gestures after casting her vote in the morning during the general election in Dhaka, Bangladesh, December 30, 2018.

Millions of young new voters are registered to vote in the South Asian nation's first fully competitive general election in a decade. “I will freely vote for whom I want,” said Manjur Ahmed, 23, a first-time voter who had come to a polling station with his father. “I want the development of the country to continue. I realise some people are nervous but I am not.”

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) boycotted the last election in 2014 claiming it wouldn't be free and fair. Hasina and Khaleda have alternated in power for most of the last three decades and this is the first election the BNP has contested without its leader. It stitched together the National Unity Front alliance with smaller parties, but has alleged its supporters and candidates faced attacks and intimidation, including shootings and arrests, at the hands of ruling party activists during campaigning. Some BNP leaders and a European diplomat said they feared the election would be rigged.

Hasina's party dismissed the accusations, saying the opposition has been making “one false allegation after another for months prior to election as polls show a landslide victory” for the ruling party.

The Awami League, which has touted an improved economy and development, is widely expected to win.

“I believe that people will cast their votes in favour of Awami League to continue the pace of development,” Hasina told reporters in Dhaka. “The 'boat' will surely win. I believe in democracy and I have confidence in the people of my country.”

She has already invited foreign journalists and poll observers to her official residence on Monday, by which time the election result is expected to be known.

‘Badge of honour’

Annual growth in the Muslim-majority nation of 165 million people rose to 7.8 per cent in the 2017-18 financial year that ended on June 30, compared with 5.1 per cent when Hasina took over in 2008/09.

Over the same period, annual sales of its economic mainstay, the garment industry, nearly tripled, with garment exports worth $30.6 billion in 2017-18, making up 83.5 per cent of total exports. Bangladesh's garment industry is the world's second biggest after China. One of Hasina's top jobs if she retains power will be to address demands by garment workers for a higher minimum wage.

But she has faced accusations of increasing authoritarianism. Her son, Sajeeb Wazed, told Reuters on Saturday Hasina regarded such accusations by “Western media” as a “badge of honour”.

At a polling booth set up in a high school in old Dhaka on Sunday, some were afraid to comment on the polls, describing an atmosphere of fear.

“I hope the result will be good for us and 'boat' will win,” said a polling agent, Mohammed Selim Raj. “Boat is the symbol of our liberation.” A middle-aged businessman who declined to be named said, “I am here to vote, but my family says, 'what's the point?' The ruling party will come back in power in any case.”

Hasina has been praised internationally for providing refuge to Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in neighbouring Myanmar, but her government is accused of suppressing dissent and jailing critics.

The United States, which has urged Bangladesh to ensure the vote is free and fair, said opposition party candidates had “borne the brunt of most violence” in recent weeks. “Think before you act violently!” the U.S. embassy said on Twitter. ”Your country depends on it.”

Hasina and Khaleda have alternated in power for most of the last three decades and this is the first election the BNP has contested without its leader.

After intensive efforts by the BNP to get Khaleda out of jail failed, her son, Tarique Rahman, who is wanted in Bangladesh accused of masterminding a 2004 plot to kill Hasina, appealed to women, who make up nearly half the 100 million voters, on Facebook. “This is my appeal to every mother, every woman in Bangladesh: only you can get her reunited with her family through the collective power of each of your votes,” he said.