Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is about to win a fourth straight time period and the fifth general for her Awami League-led alliance in a normal election on Sunday boycotted by the principle opposition get together and marred by violence forward of the vote.
Voting will start at 8 am (0200 GMT) and finish at 4 pm (1000 GMT). Counting will begin quickly after the tip of voting, with preliminary outcomes anticipated by early Monday.
Rights teams say the nation of 170 million is headed for digital one-party rule, after the boycott by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and a few of its smaller allies.
The United States and Western nations, necessary prospects of its garment trade, have referred to as for a free and truthful election – the nation’s twelfth since independence in 1971.
About 120 million voters will select from almost 2,000 candidates for the 300 immediately elected parliamentary seats. There are 436 impartial candidates, essentially the most since 2001.
The BNP says the Awami League has propped up “dummy” candidates as independents to attempt to make the election look credible, a declare the ruling get together denies.
The BNP, which additionally boycotted the 2014 ballot however took half in 2018, has requested folks to shun the ballot and referred to as a two-day nationwide strike from Saturday.
With the poll end result all however assured and excessive danger of violence, turnout may very well be low on Sunday.
Violence erupted on the eve of the election, with a passenger prepare fireplace, which the federal government referred to as arson, killing at the least 4 folks whereas a number of polling cubicles and establishments had been set ablaze across the nation.
Troops have fanned out throughout Bangladesh to keep up peace whereas almost 800,000 police, paramilitary and police auxiliaries will guard polling cubicles on Sunday.
Her foremost rival and two-time premier, BNP chief Khaleda Zia, is successfully beneath home arrest on corruption fees the opposition says have been trumped up.
Khaleda’s son, Tarique Rahman, is the appearing chairman of the get together, however he’s in exile, dealing with fees that he denies.
The financial system has additionally slowed down sharply for the reason that Russia-Ukraine conflict pushed up the costs of gas and meals imports, forcing Bangladesh to show to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout of $4.7 billion final yr. (Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly and Ruma Paul; modifying by Giles Elgood)