Bangladesh mounts security operation to make poll safe
Bangladesh mounts security operation to make poll safe
DHAKA (Agencies): Bangladesh mounted a huge security operation
yesterday ahead of the country's second parliamentary elections
in four months and pledged that everything possible had been done
to ensure voting was clean.
Bangladeshis believe much of their future depends on today's
elections, whose success is seen as crucial if the poverty-
stricken country of 115 million people is to put a history of
military rule and political chaos behind it.
Troops stationed in all 64 administrative districts and big
cities were on standby to help some 400,000 police and
paramilitary soldiers guarding polling stations.
Mohammad Yunus, one of 11 members of the caretaker government
overseeing the elections, said fears of rigging were unfounded.
"We have plugged all the holes," he told a news conference.
"We have taken every single measure necessary to ensure the poll
will be honest and transparent."
Yunus cited measures including a near-blanket ban on motor
vehicles and the presence of 169 foreign observers and nearly 100
Dhaka-based diplomats watching the elections.
The last election in February was won by the Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP) of former prime minister Begum Khaleda
Zia, but the voting was boycotted by major opposition parties.
Under heavy pressure, Khaleda resigned on March 30 only two
weeks after she had started her second term in office, and called
for fresh elections under a non-party interim authority.
More than 80 political parties are contesting the new polls
supervised by a caretaker government headed by retired chief
justice Habibur Rahman.
Despite the efforts of the government, Khaleda said on Monday
night she suspected that polling might not be free and fair in
all 300 constituencies.
"It's too early to say if the elections will be rigged. But I
suppose polling in all the centers may not be free and fair," she
told reporters.
Arch-rival Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League accused the BNP
of conspiring to tamper with the poll results.
Election Commission sources said they expected a close contest
between the BNP and the Awami League, which has been out of power
since 1975.
A third group, the Jatiya (national) party, is being led from
prison by former ruler General Hossain Mohammad Ershad, who was
jailed by Khaleda on bribery charges.
Meanwhile, the death toll from the Bangladesh election
campaign rose to 19 yesterday as predictions grew on the eve of
voting that there would be a hung parliament and more
uncertainty.
Six more people were killed in clashes between supporters of
rival parties and other end-of-campaign violence, police and news
reports said.
Two people, including an 11-year-old boy, were killed in the
Chittagong and Mymensingh districts in clashes, police said.
One of the other four deaths came in a stampede, Janakantha
newspaper reported. Thirteen other people have been killed in the
past three weeks, many in clashes between the rival Bangladesh
BNP and Awami League.
Voting for the 300-seat parliament will start at 8:00 a.m.
(0200 GMT) today, which has been declared a public holiday, and
continue for eight hours. The election commission said results
would be ready by Friday.
A high turn-out was expected among the electorate of more than
56 million people, despite the violence and the army's failed
revolt last month.