Violent clashes precede Bangladesh election

Nearly 60 polling stations in Bangladesh were set on fire and three people were killed on the eve of tomorrow's electio.

The ruling Awami League looks certain to prevail in a walkover as the main opposition party boycotts the poll in a move that undermines the legitimacy of the election and makes it unlikely that the polls will stem a wave of political violence that killed at least 275 people in 2013.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) called a 48-hour strike from this morning and urged voters to stay away from the "farcical" election. Traffic in Dhaka was lighter than normal for a Saturday although some shops were open.

Without the BNP’s participation, fewer than half of 300 parliamentary constituencies are being contested.

“I call upon countrymen to fully boycott the disgraceful farce in the name of election of January 5th,” BNP chief Begum Khaleda Zia, who has been under what she calls virtual house arrest, said in a statement last night.

The government has denied that she is confined or under house arrest.

The BNP is protesting against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s scrapping of the practice of having a caretaker government oversee elections and many of its leaders are in jail or in hiding.

The impasse undermines the poll’s legitimacy and is fuelling worries of economic gridlock and further violence in the impoverished South Asian nation of 160 million.

Much of Dhaka, has been cut off from the rest of the country in recent weeks, as the opposition has pressed its demands through general strikes and transport blockades.

Civilians have been caught up in the bloodshed, with activists torching vehicles belonging to motorists who defy the strikes, leading to a growing sense of desperation over the political impasse. Up to 50 schools and other facilities to be used as polling stations have been burned down, TV reports said.

“I want to go to vote, but I am afraid of violence,” said Hazera Begum, a teacher in Dhaka. “If the situation is normal and my neighbours go, I may go.”

The opposition is demands that Ms Hasina step down and appoint a neutral caretaker administration to oversee the election.

But Ms Hasina has refused, which means the election will mainly be a contest between candidates from the Awami League and its allies.

Bangladesh has a grim history of political violence, including the assassinations of two presidents and 19 failed coup attempts since its independence from Pakistan in 1971.

“I am fearful that deadly violence could return, people would continue to suffer, political forces with extreme views could emerge in the face of government crackdown and repressive measures,” said Asif Nazrul, a law teacher and analyst. “This election will just pollute our very new democracy by shrinking the space for opposite views.”

The squabbling between Ms Hasina and opposition leader Khaleda Zia - known as the “Battling Begums” - has become a bitter sideshow as both women vie to lead the country. “Begum” is an honorific for Muslim women of rank.

The bickering between the two long-time rivals caused an uproar in October, when the women spoke for the first time in years in an acrimonious telephone call.

“I called you around noon. You didn’t pick up,” Ms Hasina said, according to a transcript published in the Dhaka Tribune, an English-language newspaper.

Ms Zia, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, said the prime minister was wrong. “You have to listen to me first,” Ms Zia snapped.

Last weekend, after authorities barred Ms Zia from leaving her home to join a rally, she told police that she would change the name of Gopalganj, Ms Hasina’s home district, if she came to power.

Her outburst was broadcast live on TV while roads around her home were heavily guarded and sand-laden trucks were parked to obstruct her movement.

Yesterday, Ms Zia again urged people to boycott what she called “farcical” elections. “None at home and abroad will legitimise it,” she said.

Ms Zia and Ms Hasina have dominated Bangladeshi politics for two decades, which is more a reflection of South Asia’s penchant for political dynasties than of the role of women in this mostly Muslim nation.

A key factor in the latest dispute is the role of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamic political party. The party is a key ally of Ms Zia, and was a coalition partner in the government Ms Zia led from 2001 to 2006.

Opponents of Jamaat-e-Islami say it is a fundamentalist group with no place in a secular country. Bangladesh is predominantly Muslim, but is governed by largely secular laws based on British common law.

The execution last month of Abdul Quader Mollah, a Jamaat-e-Islami leader and a key member of the opposition, exposed the country’s seething tensions.

Mollah was the first person to be hanged for war crimes in Bangladesh under an international tribunal established in 2010 to investigate atrocities stemming from the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.

Bangladesh says Pakistani soldiers, aided by local collaborators including Mollah, killed at least three million people and raped 200,000 women during the nine-month war. The case remains politically volatile because most of those being tried are connected to the opposition.

AP