![]() The Awami League argues that the interim government system has failed in the past. "Even if the BNP wanted to sit down to a dialogue, the atmosphere does not exist," Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury, a BNP vice chairman who was detained for several hours following a recent visit to Khaleda's home, told Reuters on Friday. Khaleda is under what appears to be house arrest. Many opposition leaders are in jail or in hiding. The BNP demands that the current electoral process be halted. If successful, these could eventually result in another election. Hasina has spoken of holding talks following Sunday's polls with the opposition on the conduct of future elections. Last month, the first execution resulting from the tribunal was followed by deadly violence against Awami League members. Meanwhile, verdicts in the International Crimes Tribunal investigating atrocities committed during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan have elicited a violent reaction from activists affiliated with the Jamaat-e-Islami party, an Islamist ally of the BNP. Five polling centers were set on fire in southeastern Feni, Khaleda's hometown. Pre-election violence that killed more than 100 people, mostly in rural areas, had eased in recent days, although two people were burnt to death early on Friday when opposition activists hurled petrol bombs at a truck in northern Dinajpur, according to police. That could imperil Bangladesh's $22 billion garment industry, which accounts for 80 percent of exports and has been hampered by a series of nationwide strikes, including an ongoing transportation blockade called by the BNP. While the outcome of Sunday's poll seems certain, what happens afterwards is not. ![]() "The acrimony between two of our main leaders has brought this country to where it is now and not just crippled our economy and growth, but also our democratic system," said Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of Citizens for Good Governance, a non-governmental organization.Įither Hasina or BNP chief Begum Khaleda Zia has been prime minister for all but two of the past 22 years and there is deep enmity between them. The impasse undermines the legitimacy of the poll and is fueling worries ofĮconomic gridlock and further violence in the impoverished South Asian country of 160 million. The Bangladesh National Party is boycotting in protest at Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's move to scrap the tradition of letting a caretaker government oversee elections. With a brass band, horse-drawn carriages and political posters flapping overhead, the rally in an old section of the Bangladesh capital had all the trappings of a spirited election.īut the two candidates vying to represent the Lalbagh constituency, among the minority of seats to be contested by more than one candidate in nationwide polls set for Sunday, are both in the ruling Awami League, which is poised to steamroll to victory as the main opposition party sits out the vote.
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