Polls start amid violence

Polling began at 8am in 147 parliament constituencies in 59 districts of Bangladesh, officials said.

Poll facts

There is no election needed in the remaining 153 constituencies which have returned winners without a contest.

In most of these 147 constituencies, the contest is between official candidates of the Awami League and party dissidents contesting as Independents after being denied tickets.

However, in the 10th National Election 43,908,724 voters will be able to cast their votes in less than half the constituencies.

Polling is being held in 91,213 booths of 18,208 centres on Sunday in 147 constituencies.

If the polling had taken place in all the 300 constituencies, there would have been 189,078 voting booths at 37,707 polling stations.

A total of 66 Returning Officers will conduct the Sunday's election across the country. They will be assisted by 577 Assistant Returning Officers.

A total of 103 Electoral Inquiry Committees have been formed by the Election Commission while 10,335 observers will keep an eye on the 10th Parliamentary Elections.

There will be no voting in the districts of Chandpur, Rajbarhi, Joypurhat, Shariyatpur and Madaripur. 543 candidates are in the fray for the 300 seats, including the 153 who have won without a contest.

Twelve political parties are in the fray in the 10th parliamentary poll.

The ruling Awami League has 120 candidates whose fate will be decided through balloting on Sunday, while 127 others have become uncontested winners. 66 candidates of Ershad led Jatiya Party are facing electoral contest while 20 others have won uncontested.

Anwar Hossain Monju led JP has 27 contestants facing electoral battle on Sunday while one has become uncontested winner. Hasanul Haque Inu's JaSad has three uncontested winners and 21 facing contest on Sunday.

The Bangladesh Workers' Party led by Rashed Khan Menon has 16 candidates on Sunday’s elections while party candidates in two seats have become uncontested winners.

The National Awami Party commonly known as NAP has put up candidates in 6 constituencies while Twarikat Federation has 3, Khelafate Mazlis 2 and one each are from Ganatantri Party, Ganafront and Bangladesh Islami Front.

375,385 personnel of different security forces including the army will be deployed across more than 18,000 polling stations at 147 constituencies in 59 districts.

218,500 of them belong to Bangladesh Ansar, 80,000 are Policemen; 8,404 are from the RAB, 16, 181 are from Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), 200 from

• Coast Guards and 52,100 from the Armed Forces.

But with the Opposition BNP-led alliance determined to thwart the ‘one-sided’ elections after having boycotted them, the possible turnout is what most are talking about.

Opposition activists are burning down polling stations, mostly set up in schools, and attacking public transport in a desperate bid to create panic to keep voters away from exercising their franchise.

A low turnout will help strengthen the Opposition case that the polls were one-sided and a farce, because the absence of challengers did not enthuse voters to come out and join the ballot.

A similar poll in 1996, boycotted by the Opposition which was the Awami League, elicited a mere 7 percent turnout and forced the Khaleda Zia’s BNP to concede a fresh election within months under a neutral non-party caretaker system that the Awami League was then pushing for.

In that election, the US deployed 48 poll observers and blamed the Awami League for not participating. It now blames the Awami League for failing to organise a ‘credible and inclusive polls’.

Now it is the Awami League which insists on a poll without the caretaker after having scrapped the provision by a constitutional amendment.

The party says the 2006-8 caretaker experience led to a rethink as it was obviously misused – and a court verdict describing it as incompatible with the spirit of the Constitution gave Awami League the chance to scrap it , using its massive majority in Parliament.

A poor turnout would give the Opposition – and those who argue democracy is at stake in Bangladesh – the chance to question the legitimacy of Sunday’s parliament election.

By the same yardstick, the Awami League and its allies would seek to ensure a substantial turnout to prove what they have argued all through – that they enjoy support of the majority in the country.

And that the Opposition resorted to poll boycott and violence because it was destined to lose and that those like the US who are creating the fuss are not doing it to protect democracy but are playing favourites.

So the government is leaving nothing to chance.

As campaign ended on Friday and poll parties started off for the thousands of voting centres in 147 constituencies located in 59 districts, a huge deployment of security personnel was in evidence.

The army has been deployed since Dec 26 in key areas to strike at trouble-makers while huge contingents of RAB, Border Guard Bangladesh and armed police have been spread out across the country to maintain peace during the polls.

“The forces are deployed in sufficient numbers to maintain peace. All other preparations are complete to hold the polls. The poll parties will reach the centres within Saturday,” said Jesmin Tuli, Joint Secretary at the Election Commission secretariat.

Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed has said the huge deployment of security forces will impact confidence of the voters and enable them to go and vote.

He said all arrangements for peaceful polling have been completed.

But with Opposition activists setting fire to dozens of polling centres and their top leaders reiterating a call to boycott the polls, the security question will confront those willing to vote.

One will have to wait until end of polling on Sunday to figure out how many voters will finally turn out to exercise the franchise.

Since more than half the seats in the 300-member Parliament has returned winners without a contest, nearly half the voters – 48 million of the total 91.9 million – will not get the chance to vote anyway.

Those who will not vote would either seek to express angst at ‘one-sided elections’ or stay away for fear of violence.

Those who would vote despite the threats would not only do so to support the ruling party, which many of them might, but also to express their faith in an election held for the first time since 1996 without a non-political caretaker.

In some ways, this election is more of a referendum on the dispensation to hold the polls in future.