DHAKA: Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina received re-election for a fifth time period Sunday (Jan 7), officers stated, following a boycott led by an opposition party she branded a “terrorist organisation”.
Hasina’s ruling Awami League “has received the election”, an Election Fee spokesman informed AFP within the early hours of Monday morning, after a vote that preliminary studies prompt 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 get together confronted virtually no efficient rivals within the seats it contested, however it prevented 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 Social gathering (BNP), whose ranks have been decimated by mass arrests, known as a basic strike and, together with dozens of others, refused to take part in a “sham election”.
Whereas the ultimate consequence and precise figures might be formally introduced at a ceremony afterward Monday, election fee officers stated Hasina’s get together had received round three-quarters of seats, not less than 220 of the full 300.
However assist of different lawmakers together with from allied events might push Hasina’s management over parliament even larger.
“DISGRACE”
Hasina, 76, had known as for residents to point out religion within the democratic course of.
“The BNP is a terrorist organisation,” she informed reporters after casting her vote. “I’m making an attempt my greatest to make sure that democracy ought to proceed on this nation.”
First-time voter Amit Bose, 21, stated he had solid his poll for his “favorite candidate”, however others stated that they had not bothered as a result of the result was assured.
“When one get together is collaborating and one other is just not, why would I’m going to vote?” stated rickshaw-puller Mohammad Saidur, 31.
BNP head Tarique Rahman, talking from Britain the place he lives in exile, informed AFP he feared “pretend votes” can be used to spice up voter turnout.
“What unfolded was not an election, however slightly 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 workforce captain, who received his seat for Hasina’s get together be a landslide, native officers stated.
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 gasoline canisters.
However election officers stated voting was largely peaceable, with almost 800,000 law enforcement officials and troopers deployed countrywide.
Meenakshi Ganguly, from Human Rights Watch, stated Sunday that the federal government had didn’t reassure opposition supporters that the polls can be honest, warning that “many concern an additional crackdown”.
Politics within the nation of 170 million folks 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 army 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 principally peaceable however noticed a number of folks 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 power blackouts in 2022.
Pierre Prakash of the Worldwide Disaster Group stated earlier than the vote that Hasina’s authorities was clearly “much less standard 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.”
