DHAKA: Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina received re-election for a fifth time period Sunday (Jan 7), officers mentioned, following a boycott led by an opposition social gathering she branded a “terrorist organisation”.
Hasina’s ruling Awami League “has received the election”, an Election Fee spokesman instructed AFP within the early hours of Monday morning, after a vote that preliminary stories advised had a meagre turnout of some 40 per cent.
She has presided over breakneck financial progress in a rustic as soon as beset by grinding poverty, however her authorities has been accused of rampant human rights abuses and a ruthless opposition crackdown.
Her social gathering confronted nearly no efficient rivals within the seats it contested, nevertheless it averted fielding candidates in just a few constituencies, in an obvious effort to keep away from the legislature being branded a one-party establishment.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Occasion (BNP), whose ranks have been decimated by mass arrests, known as a common strike and, together with dozens of others, refused to take part in a “sham election”.
Whereas the ultimate end result and actual figures will probably be formally introduced at a ceremony in a while Monday, election fee officers mentioned Hasina’s social gathering had received round three-quarters of seats, not less than 220 of the overall 300.
However help of different lawmakers together with from allied events may push Hasina’s management over parliament even increased.
“DISGRACE”
Hasina, 76, had known as for residents to indicate religion within the democratic course of.
“The BNP is a terrorist organisation,” she instructed reporters after casting her vote. “I’m attempting my greatest to make sure that democracy ought to proceed on this nation.”
First-time voter Amit Bose, 21, mentioned he had solid his poll for his “favorite candidate”, however others mentioned that they had not bothered as a result of the end result was assured.
“When one social gathering is collaborating and one other will not be, why would I’m going to vote?” mentioned rickshaw-puller Mohammad Saidur, 31.
BNP head Tarique Rahman, talking from Britain the place he lives in exile, instructed AFP he feared “pretend votes” could be used to spice up voter turnout.
“What unfolded was not an election, however fairly a shame to the democratic aspirations of Bangladesh,” he wrote on social media, alleging he had seen “disturbing footage and movies” backing his claims.
Among the many victors was Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh cricket staff captain, who received his seat for Hasina’s social gathering be a landslide, native officers mentioned.
FEAR OF “FURTHER CRACKDOWN”
The BNP and different events staged months of protests final 12 months, demanding Hasina step down forward of the vote. Officers within the port metropolis of Chittagong broke up an opposition protest Sunday, firing shotguns and tear fuel canisters.
However election officers mentioned voting was largely peaceable, with almost 800,000 law enforcement officials and troopers deployed countrywide.
Meenakshi Ganguly, from Human Rights Watch, mentioned Sunday that the federal government had did not reassure opposition supporters that the polls could be truthful, warning that “many worry an extra crackdown”.
Politics within the nation of 170 million individuals was lengthy dominated by the rivalry between Hasina, the daughter of the nation’s founding chief, and two-time premier Khaleda Zia, spouse of a former navy ruler.
Hasina has been the decisive victor since returning to energy in a 2009 landslide, with two subsequent polls accompanied by widespread irregularities and accusations of rigging.
Zia, 78, was convicted of graft in 2018 and is now in ailing well being at a hospital in Dhaka. BNP head Rahman is her son.
“DANGEROUS COMBINATION”
Hasina has accused the BNP of arson and sabotage throughout final 12 months’s protest marketing campaign, which was largely peaceable however noticed a number of individuals killed in police confrontations.
The federal government’s safety forces have been dogged by allegations of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances – fees it rejects.
Financial headwinds have left many dissatisfied with Hasina’s authorities, after sharp spikes in meals prices and months of continual blackouts in 2022.
Pierre Prakash of the Worldwide Disaster Group mentioned earlier than the vote that Hasina’s authorities was clearly “much less well-liked than it was just a few years in the past, but Bangladeshis have little actual outlet on the poll field.”
“That may be a probably harmful mixture.”
