Violence rocks Bangladesh polls, 20 killed

However, the country’s main opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) claimed that 21 opposition activists were killed in Sunday’s violence. The BNP has called a nationwide 48-hour strike from Monday morning demanding cancellation of Sunday’s polls.

Though immediate figures were not available, the Election Commission (EC) said voter turnout was low because several parties chose not to contest in it. “The voter turnout will be low because some parties are not contesting,’ the chief election commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad said. The EC said that polling at nearly 150 centres was suspended due to violence.

The BNP said empty polling stations have proved that people have rejected the country’s 10th parliamentary elections held on Sunday.

“The whole world has seen polling centres without any voters. People have said ‘no’ to this controversial single-party election and have rejected it,” bdnews24.com quoted Mirza Fakhrul Islam, BNP’s acting secretary general, as saying Sunday. He added that the road, rail and waterways blockade across the country would continue until their movement succeeded.

The BNP-led opposition alliance has been enforcing a non-stop nationwide blockade since 1 January. It also called a 48-hour general strike from Saturday to thwart the polls. However, the ruling Awami League party Sunday said the elections were held properly, despite the opposition’s boycott. Mired in controversy, the parliamentary elections were held in just 147 out of 300 seats in 59 out of 64 districts of the country. As many as 153 candidates have already been elected unopposed amid a boycott by the main opposition party and its allies.