Bangladesh to hold general elections on January 7; PM Hasina poised to win 4th consecutive term

Bangladesh will go to the polls on January 7. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to win a fourth straight term in the absence of the main Opposition BNP which on January 6 began a 48-hour nationwide strike against the “illegal government” amidst sporadic violence.

A total of 119.6 million registered voters are eligible to vote at Sunday’s polls in more than 42,000 polling stations, according to the country’s Election Commission.

More than 1,500 candidates from 27 political parties are contesting in the election besides 436 independent candidates.

Over 100 foreign observers, including three from India, will monitor the 12th general election, which is being held under tight security.

The election commission said voting will start at 8 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. The results are expected to start flowing from early on January 8.

Prime Minister Hasina’s ruling Awami League is expected to win for a straight fourth time as the main Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former premier Khaleda Zia, 78, who is under house arrest as a convict of graft charges, boycotted the polls.

Ms. Hasina, 76, in a nationally televised address this week has urged the pro-democratic and law-abiding parties not to fuel ideas that “disrupt” the country’s constitutional process.

Opposition BNP boycotts election

The BNP has called for a 48-hour nationwide general strike which began at 6 a.m. on January 6 and will end at 6 a.m. on January 8.

Dhaka University students hold a rally along a roadside in the capital on January 6, 2024 urging people to boycott Bangladesh’s general elections on the eve of it’s commencement. Bangladesh votes on January 7, in an election guaranteed to give Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina her fifth term in office, after a boycott by opposition parties whose ranks have been decimated by mass arrests.
| Photo Credit:
AFP

The number of vehicles on the street is fewer compared to other days, but despite fear of arson attacks, public vehicles were plying the streets.

The 27 political parties that are contesting the elections include the opposition Jatiya Party (JAPA). The rest are members of the ruling Awami League-led coalition, which experts dub as “satellite parties.”

As part of its vote boycott campaign, BNP has been calling countrywide general strikes. The party has been claiming no election under the incumbent government would be fair and credible.

BNP spokesman Ruhul Kabir Rizvi announced the strike, saying it was aimed to press for their demands for “resignation of the illegal government, establishment of a non-party neutral government and release of all party leaders and activists from prison”.

Ahead of the elections, Ms. Hasina’s government arrested tens of thousands of rival politicians and supporters, a move which rights groups have condemned as an attempt to paralyse the Opposition.

Prime Minister Hasina said the Awami League, whenever it came to power, ensured the economic and social development of the people of the country.

Authorities deployed Army troops across the country two days ago “in aid of civil administration” to maintain peace and order during the voting.

Despite the strict security arrangements, unidentified people carried homemade bomb and arson attacks in empty polling centres in four out of 64 administrative districts, while BNP activists clashed with police in another district, leaving five people wounded on Friday.

At least 14 arson attacks were reported in 16 hours till 9:30 a.m. on January 6, according to Fire Service statistics.

At least four people were killed when a passenger train was torched by arsonists near Dhaka on the night of January 5. The BNP has demanded a UN-supervised investigation into the incident which it described as a “pre-planned” act of sabotage.

Detectives said they arrested eight persons, including Dhaka south city unit BNP joint convener Nabi Ullah Nabi, for their involvement in setting fire to the Benapole Express.

They claimed to have found involvement of the BNP and the activists of the Jubo Dal, the youth wing of the party, in last night’s attack.

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Saturday denounced the arson attack and said the government was playing with fire to make political gains by blaming the Opposition.

Brussels-based think-tank International Crisis Group (ICG) said Bangladesh is at a critical juncture.

“Bangladesh is at a critical juncture. The once vibrant, if imperfect democracy will soon hold a third election without a credible alternative to the incumbent government,” it said in a recent report.

The think tank said while it was now too late to delay the January election, the Awami League and BNP should work after the vote to de-escalate the country’s political tensions, including through concessions by both sides.

Political science professor and analyst Harunur Rashid said he feared Bangladesh might need to wait for an indefinite period to witness a congenial political atmosphere because of the highly conflicting nature between the two major parties.

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Kader on Friday said there was no perfect democracy anywhere in the world, but BNP’s participation could have made the upcoming elections more competitive.

He said an unprecedented “mass tide” has been created in favour of the party across the country ahead of the elections.

Hoping that the national election would be held in a free, fair, and peaceful manner, he said the election means a festival of democracy to the people of Bangladesh, and this time it is no exception.

He commented on the BNP’s general strike on election day and said it is now an “obsolete tool” in Bangladesh’s politics.

Bangladesh’s political arrangements

Ms. Hasina has been in power since 2009 and won the last election in December 2019, in a poll marred by deadly violence and accusations of poll rigging.

The BNP boycotted the 2014 election but joined the one in 2019, which party leaders later said was a mistake, alleging the voting was marred with widespread rigging and intimidation.

BNP’s boycott announcement this time, however, initially posed a challenge to Ms. Hasina on the legitimacy of the January 7 polls as JAPA also expressed its reluctance to join the fray but agreed to participate as the ruling party decided to spare them 26 seats, withdrawing their candidates.

Awami League also left six seats to its partners in the 14-party ruling alliance while Ms. Hasina encouraged independent and rebel candidates to contest to make the polling participatory while the ruling party was carrying out a campaign for high voter turnouts.

Analysts and watchdogs, however, said the country of 170 million was heading for virtual one-party rule, while many voters said they found no charm in voting this time as the polling was set to reelect the incumbent government. Bangladesh’s economy has also slowed sharply since the Russia-Ukraine war boosted prices of fuel and food imports, forcing Bangladesh to turn to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout of USD 4.7 billion last year.

Many fear that a fourth straight term for Ms. Hasina would worsen the economic situation, deepening their despair.

Source link

#Bangladesh #hold #general #elections #January #Hasina #poised #win #4th #consecutive #term

Shopkeepers salvage their goods from nearby shops as a fire rages at Bangabazar Market, a popular market for cheaper clothes in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, on April, 4, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

On a Friday evening, they occupied a stretch of a crowded road to sell clothes from their carts after their shops were gutted by a catastrophic fire at the Bangabazar market, the biggest shopping place for cheaper products. Some of them found refuge in the dusky light beneath a flyover, past the disaster site. Some lit up their makeshift shops with mobile phone torches as the power supply was cut off to the area. The pungent smell of smoke was heavy in the air because small flames still smouldered, three days after the blaze burnt down thousands of shops. Traders and workers were forced to come onto the street to sell whatever they had to curious onlookers and the pedestrians hurrying home after work.

One of the clothing traders was Foyez Ahmed, 35. On the morning of April 4, he received a frightening phone call from his brother and rushed to the marketplace only to find it was already ablaze sending up flames and smoke. Although firefighters arrived on the scene within minutes of the first call for help, the fire went out of control due to the southern wind and ravaged the shops packed with clothes for the coming Id sales. As the firefighting efforts went on, the blaze expanded its arc, ripping through other adjoining markets.

In frantic efforts to tame the flames, Bangladesh deployed the Army and the Air Force. A helicopter was seen carrying water to the disaster site from a lake, some distance away, as firefighters struggled to find reservoirs nearby.

“I lost everything I had in the shop, and so did my brother,” Mr. Ahmed said as he was sitting by the road hoping for some sales just ahead of Id-ul-Fitr, the biggest religious festival in Bangladesh. His shop stocked up on trousers, shorts, raincoats and jackets — all went up in smoke within minutes.

Country of fires

Bangladesh is no stranger to massive fires. The South Asian nation reported 85 deaths in 24,102 fire incidents in 2022 compared with 219 deaths in 21,601 incidents a year earlier, according to data from the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence. The number of fires at shopping malls and marketplaces rose to 589 in 2022 from 458 a year earlier.

An aerial view shows firefighters trying to douse a fire that broke out in a popular clothing market known as Bangabazar Market in Dhaka, Bangladesh, April 4, 2023.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

The Bangabazar fire is symptomatic of the Dhaka markets’ unpreparedness and sheer negligence to prevent massive blazes because they lack warning systems. The fire prompted the authorities to survey at-risk shopping malls and marketplaces.

Gausia is one such market.

The Gausia market has no fire extinguisher control panels used for monitoring and control of systems for active extinguishing. The seven-storey building beside one of the most crowded roads has 430 shops and is one of the busiest in the city. Most shops sell women’s clothing, jewellery, bags, shoes and cosmetics on crammed floors. The upper floors of the market house the offices and warehouses. The six stairways have become narrow due to the mushrooming of shops.

“Not enough people can go down these stairs in the event of an accident. If there is a fire on the stairs, they will become unusable. The shop owners must keep the stairs free,” Bazlur Rashid, deputy assistant director of the fire service, told reporters in Dhaka on April 6.

‘Enforce the law’

Urban planners point to the strict enforcement of the law by government agencies as the way forward. “Their job doesn’t stop at serving notice on risky buildings. They must enforce the law. They are authorised to shut those buildings if the fire code is not complied within 90 days from the first notice,” Adil Mohammed Khan, executive director of the Dhaka-based Institute for Planning and Development, said in an interview.

Referring to an estimated loss of 2.88 billion taka (₹220 crore) from the Bangabazar fire, Mr. Khan said the investment in fire safety at the market would be a tiny fraction of it.

Dhaka is one of the largest and most densely populated cities in the world, regardless of how the boundaries of the city are delineated. Image for representation
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

“We must shun the culture of showing indifference to fire hazards in order to keep the buildings and workplaces safe. It’s not just enough to have some extinguishers in the buildings. The government must compel market owners to execute safety measures in the real sense,” Mr. Khan said.

Dhaka, central to the country’s middle-income future, is one of the largest and most densely populated cities in the world, regardless of how the boundaries of the city are delineated. The city is expanding in an unplanned and unchecked manner. It faces seemingly impossible challenges. Despite unrelenting efforts to upgrade infrastructure, congestion is increasing and travel speeds are declining. While it is the key driver of economic prosperity, it’s also known for its stubborn messiness. Markets and shops have mushroomed in the middle of residential neighbourhoods — the dizzying proliferation of commerce and new apartments — obliterating the last remaining open space.

Death traps

While some of these markets are death traps, they provide an economic lifeline to tens of thousands of workers migrating from rural backwaters to urban areas in search of jobs. For many, this low-paid work is the launchpad for a better future.

On the road past the burnt-out Bangabazar market, one of the young traders who lost their shops to the fire was Omar Faruk, 18. He was waiting for customers as the evening wore on. Unlike other traders, Mr. Faruk did not lose hope. “My father will sell a parcel of land to raise some money for me. We’ll rent a new space for a shop somewhere,” he said.

His voice trailed off into the cacophony of nervous honking as traffic crawled along. Some distance away, a police team arrived to work the night shift to guard the area against potential thefts.

Arun Devnath is a journalist based in Dhaka.

Source link

#Dhakas #mushrooming #markets #fear #fire #loss #lingers

Zittrex Store

Cart

Cart

Tag: bangladesh news