Bangladesh vote brings emergency rule to an end

BANGLADESHIS voted in their droves yesterday in elections that marked the end of two years of emergency rule, with ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed’s Awami League party claiming to be ahead in early returns.

Sheikh Hasina Wajed is vying with her bitter rival, Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), to reclaim power in the impoverished nation.

“Based on the preliminary results, it seems we are heading for a majority in the parliamentary elections,” Sheikh Hasina’s press secretary, Abdul Kalam Azad, told AFP.

Held under tight security, the first polls since 2001 attracted a turnout of 70% and saw none of the violence that forced the last scheduled vote to be cancelled and saw an army-backed interim government take control. Long queues snaked outside voting stations all day as hundreds of thousands of police and troops stood ready to avert clashes between party activists or attacks by Islamic extremists.

Despite efforts by the caretaker regime to shake up a political system long seen as deeply corrupt, the two leading candidates have ruled alternately since 1991 and their mutual hatred has paralysed the country politically.

Sheikh Hasina and Zia wooed voters with promises of cheaper food, action against Islamic militancy and curbs on corruption.