600k deployed for Bangladesh election shackled by violence

DHAKA: Bangladeshtightened security yesterday for an election expected to see Prime MinisterSheikh Hasina win a record fourth term but dominated by opposition claims thatthey have been shackled by a government clampdown. Authorities have deployedaround 600,000 police, army and other security forces ahead of today's vote, asenior official said, following a deadly campaign of clashes and the arrests ofopposition activists.

The forces -- whichalso include the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), navy, border and coastguards and auxiliary police units -- will guard some 40,000 election boothsacross the poor South Asian nation. "We have ensured the highest level ofsecurity in Bangladesh as per the capacity of the country," Rafiqul Islamof the election commission told AFP. "We hope there will be a peacefulatmosphere," he said.

Bangladesh'stelecoms regulator also ordered the country's mobile operators to shut down 3Gand 4G services until midnight on Sunday "to prevent the spread ofrumors", that could trigger unrest, a spokesman said. A heavy policepresence was evident on the streets of the capital Dhaka ahead of the pollsopening at 8:00 am (0200 GMT) Sunday but residents appeared undeterred."Voting is important because as a citizen of Bangladesh it is my duty.I'll cast my vote for my chosen candidate," Siam Ahmed told AFP.

Deaths

Clashes havegripped the Muslim majority country of 165 million in the run-up to the vote,in which the ruling Awami League and opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party(BNP) are leading their own alliances. Thirteen people have been killed andthousands injured in skirmishes between supporters of Hasina and activists ofthe BNP, whose leader Khaleda Zia is serving 17 years in prison on graftcharges.

The BNP -- whichboycotted the 2014 election, handing Hasina an easy victory -- says itssupporters have been deliberately targeted in a bid to deter them from voting,clearing the prime minister's path for a new term. The 71-year-old Hasina hascalled for voters to back her to further bolster the economy which has shownimpressive growth during her decade in power. She has rejected accusations ofgrowing authoritarianism. The BNP -- the main player in an alliance headed byKamal Hossain, an 82-year-old Oxford educated lawyer who drew up Bangladesh'sconstitution -- has accused the election commission of bias during thecampaign.

The oppositionsays more than 14,000 of its activists have been detained since the electionwas announced on November 8. The BNP said over 1,100 people were rounded up onFriday alone. The party also alleges that around 12,000 activists were injuredin attacks by ruling party followers. The Awami League denies the allegation. Sixteeninternational human rights groups released a joint statement yesterday sayingthe crackdown "compromises the integrity" of the vote. The UnitedStates has raised concerns about the elections while the United Nations calledfor greater efforts to make the vote fair. Rafiqul Islam said electionauthorities were still hopeful the country's 11th parliamentary polls sinceindependence from Pakistan in 1971 would be credible.

Arrests

"We'retrying our best to have a free and fair election," he said. A spokesmanfor the RAB, Bangladesh's elite security force, said yesterday they hadarrested eight men for spreading rumors on social media ahead of Sunday's poll.Forty-eight people have been detained by the force in 2018 for spreading"false information and mocking" Hasina, the spokesman said.

The electioncommission has also imposed restrictions on public transport and cars onpolling day in an effort to maintain security for a smooth election, saidIslam. Hasina, daughter of Bangladesh's founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahmanand now its longest-serving leader, is seeking a third-straight term sincewinning a landslide in December 2008.

She has beenpraised for presiding over healthy GDP expansion, with the country set tograduate from a least developed country to a middle income nation, and laudedfor opening Bangladesh's doors to around one million Rohingya refugees fleeinga military crackdown in Myanmar. But critics accuse her of muzzling free speechand clamping down on dissent, including through a draconian anti-press lawtoughened this year.  - AFP