BANGLADESH ELECTION: POLLS CLOSE IN VOTE BOYCOTTED BY OPPOSITION

Sun 07 January 2024:

Polling in Bangladesh’s national election is now officially closed as of 4pm (10:00 GMT).

Votes are going to be officially counted in 299 out of 300 parliamentary constituencies, an Election Commission official told Al Jazeera.

Polls will close soon and very few voters showed up to vote today. At one of the busier voting centres where we are, it’s pretty much empty. There is a lack of interest and enthusiasm. The city is quiet and sombre. Not wanting to speak freely on camera, people are saying off the record this is all very predictable. It is not an inclusive election.

Voter turnout is around 27.15 percent, as of 3pm local time (09:00 GMT), an hour before polls close, says Election Commission official Jahangir Alam during a briefing.

However, independent election observer and civil society activist Badul Alam Majumder says he is sceptical about Alam’s claim.

Majumder told Al Jazeera while his organisation Shujon is not officially observing the election this year, they don’t consider it a “proper election at all”.

“But we are monitoring it unofficially of course. It has a seriously low turnout – probably the lowest I have seen in my life,” he said. When asked if he himself voted, Majumder smiled and said, “No comments on that”.

Website of newspaper critical of gov’t remains blocked

Earlier on Sunday, we reported that access to the website of The Daily Manab Zamin newspaper has been blocked across Bangladesh.

Sajid Hoque, news editor at the Daily Manab Zamin, said the paper had been “flooded with calls and messages” from readers who said “that they cannot access our website”.

“Manab Zamin’s website is not accessible from across the country,” the paper posted on Facebook.

The newspaper’s print edition was still available on the streets.

International media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which ranks Bangladesh 163rd out of 180 countries in its world press freedom index, warned of the government’s “harmful grip on information” ahead of the vote.

PM Hasina calls main opposition party a ‘terrorist’ organisation

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which is boycotting the election, a “terrorist” organisation.

She made the comment after casting her vote at Dhaka City College, alongside her sister and daughter.

“I am trying my best to ensure that democracy should continue in this country,” she said, urging people to cast their ballots and “show their faith in the democratic process”.

Opposition parties protest in Dhaka

An alliance of 12 small parties in support of BNP’s election boycott call is protesting in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka.

“Stop this farcical election. Give back us our democratic right,” they chanted.

Parties in the alliance include the Jatiya Party (Kazi Zafar), Bangladesh Kalyan Party, Bangladesh Labour Party and the Islami Oikya Jote.

A group of left-wing parties is also demonstrating in the streets against the ongoing voting, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Hasina and holding of a new election under a neutral caretaker government.

Main Islamist party holds procession rallies, calls on people to boycott vote

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami – the largest Islamist political party in Bangladesh – has organised processions in several parts of the country in support of the Hartal, which is equivalent to a complete strike or closure, as called for by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which boycotted today’s vote.

Jamaat is a key ally of the BNP, even though it lost registration as a political party back in 2013.

In the northern part of Dhaka, Jamaat supporters organised a procession rally and chanted slogans, including: “We don’t stand for this farcical election. Boycott, boycott.”

In the port city of Chattogram, another Jamaat rally urged voters to stay away from poll centres.

The Jamaat party’s verified Facebook page uploaded several video clips of the procession rallies.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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