Loser urged to accept result of Bangladeshi election

Bangladesh’s first election in seven years was called largely free, fair and the most peaceful in decades, but the bitter feelings between the two women who have dominated politics re-emerged as the loser rejected her archrival’s win.

This week’s vote returned former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to power in a landslide.

But her rival’s accusation of vote fraud indicated Ms Hasina will find it difficult to escape paralysing power struggles in a country long plagued by corruption and misrule. Both women faced recent corruption charges.

“It is a farcical election,” Khaleda Zia, also a former prime minister, said in a televised news conference early today, claiming the results did not reflect the people’s opinion.

Ms Hasina, however, offered to work with Ms Zia.

Hasina spokesman H.T. Imam quoted her as telling a UN polls observer team that she would work with the opposition to make the new parliament effective and democracy meaningful in the troubled South Asian nation.

Ms Hasina was scheduled to meet with the military-backed interim government late today to discuss a transfer of power, private television station Channel-i reported. The transfer will take at least a week, said Anwarul Iqbal, an adviser to the interim government.

Monday’s election heralded the Muslim country’s return to democracy after two years of military-backed rule, which was put in place after failed elections in 2007 dissolved into street riots.

While Ms Zia’s party charged that Ms Hasina’s new two-thirds majority in Parliament was the result of widespread vote fraud, both Bangladeshi and international observers expressed satisfaction with the voting process.

“This has been a very free and fair election,” said Election Commission Secretary Humayun Kabir, who had 20,000 observers monitoring the vote.

International observers, including European Union monitors, urged the opposition to accept the results.

“The process appears to have yielded a result that accurately reflects the will of Bangladeshi voters,” said Constance Berry Newman, head of a 65-person delegation from the International Republican Institute, a Washington-based group that promotes democracy.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi microcredit pioneer, congratulated Ms Hasina on her victory.

“This absolute majority will give you a chance to bring about a real change in the country,” Mr Yunus said in an open letter to Ms Hasina published today.

But Ms Zia’s party filed complaints with the Election Commission, charging ballot-rigging and forgery at 220 polling stations, including election officials registering fake votes.

Mr Kabir said the commission would investigate.