Bangladesh goes to polls today

Infographic: TBS

Bangladesh goes to national elections today, setting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on the course to win a fourth straight term amid boycotts and agitations by the BNP and some other opposition parties.

The country is under a security blanket with law enforcers deployed to maintain a peaceful atmosphere for the polls as the boycotting parties have called hartal or general strike on the election day urging people to stay away from voting.

BNP becomes irrelevant

This election is unique in many ways – Bangladesh had never witnessed so much of foreign pressure for a free, fair and participatory election. And the BNP – or, for that matter, any opposition – had also never enjoyed this much of support of Western powers, especially the US, and yet had failed to press home any of its demands and in the process, finally, the BNP managed to get emasculated and make itself irrelevant in the country's politics.

Summing up the whole election process and the tension around the election process, influential US newspaper the Wall Street Journal, has observed in an opinion piece titled "Bangladesh Shows the Limits of Biden's 'Democracy Promotion'", "The U.S. failure in Bangladesh stands out because the country was in theory an ideal testing ground for Mr. Biden's values-centric foreign policy. The world's eighth most populous nation is arguably big enough to matter, but at the same time not vital enough for Washington to need to place strategic and economic interests above democracy promotion."

This is a historic election year globally, with more than 60 countries representing half the world population – some 4 billion people – set to hold elections, starting with Bangladesh and including the other South Asian nations of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Under superpowers' lens

Bangladesh's elections have drawn a lot of attention from global superpowers and organisations with the United States announcing a new policy in May to deny visas to individuals responsible for, or complicit in, "undermining the democratic election process in Bangladesh".

The United Nations on Wednesday said it is closely monitoring the election process as it hopes all elections happen in a "transparent and organised manner".

Sheikh Hasina, the world's longest serving female prime minister, has time and again vowed the election will be free and fair. The Chief Election Commissioner reiterated the same yesterday in a televised speech to the nation and expressed hope that the 12th parliamentary election will be credible nationally and internationally.

BNP and its non-partisan caretaker demand

But BNP and other like-minded parties refuse to buy it. Boycotting the polls, these parties have been agitating on the street to demand a neutral, non-party caretaker administration to oversee the elections.

The Awami League all along maintained that the polls have to be held under the current government as per the constitution. Now that its major opposition is out of the race, the ruling party is looking at an assured victory.

The independents equation

But the election is not devoid of excitement as in a new development in the country's electoral history, the Awami League's official nominees are facing tough challenges from the party's own members contesting as independents.

In 80 to 100 constituencies, hard battles are expected between the AL candidates and the independents.

The ruling party nominated candidates are vying in the election with 'boat' symbol in 266 seats, while the party is sharing 26 seats with Jatiyo Party and six seats with three partners of its 14-party alliance – three for Jasod, two for Workers' Party and one for JP-Manju.

Jatiyo Party nominated contenders are officially contesting in 265 seats. Of them, 26 are vying for the election as candidates of the AL-led alliance. However, some Jatiyo Party contestants have unofficially quitted the electoral race.

Out of 44 political parties registered with the Election Commission, 16 parties are out of the electoral race that has around 12 crore voters listed.

Though there are 300 constituencies, the EC postponed the election for Naogaon-2 constituency following the death of an independent candidate. A fresh schedule for the seat will be announced soon.

Security has been stepped up across the country after a series of arson, including a fire on a moving train, Benapole Express, on Friday night that left four people dead.

A total of 14 fire incidents were reported in 16 hours from 6pm on 5 January across the country, the Fire Service and Civil Defence said.

Some eight lakh security personnel have been deployed to maintain poll-time atmosphere by monitoring for violations of codes of conduct across the country.