[Sunday was the culmination of months of confrontation between the governing Awami League and
the main opposition force, the Bangladesh National Party. The B.N.P. refused to participate
in the elections after
the government rejected its demand to put in place a nonpartisan caretaker government
to oversee the voting, which had been customary in recent years and was seen as
a protection against government manipulation.]
By Ellen Barry
 |
Reuters
An activist with the governing Awami League was attacked by men with the
Bangladesh National Party and its ally the Jamaat-e-Islami on Sunday
in Rajshahi, about 150 miles west of Dhaka.
|
DHAKA,
Bangladesh — Amid a
deepening conflict between Bangladesh’s two main political parties, the scene
here in the capital as polls opened for the general elections on Sunday was
ominous, with black-clad special forces units and soldiers in combat gear
patrolling nearly empty boulevards.
Though final results had not been released
by early Monday, official counts from Dhaka suggested that the turnout here
averaged about 22 percent — a steep decline from the last general elections,
when more than 87 percent voted.
At least 19 people were reported to have
been killed in political violence, and 440 polling places were closed early
because of security concerns. Bangladeshi television stations broadcast images
of rural polling places charred by arson attacks, and of bodies wrapped in red
blankets.
Sunday was the culmination of months of confrontation between the governing Awami League and
the main opposition force, the Bangladesh National Party. The B.N.P. refused to participate
in the elections after
the government rejected its demand to put in place a nonpartisan caretaker government
to oversee the voting, which had been customary in recent years and was seen as
a protection against government manipulation.
As the largely uncontested elections drew
closer, the opposition began a campaign to suppress turnout, hoping it would pressure
the government to scrap the results and prepare for new elections under
conditions that the B.N.P. would accept. Opposition leaders exulted as the
polls closed on Sunday.
“I think this so-called election has been
clearly and firmly rejected by the people,” Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury, the
B.N.P.’s vice chairman, said in a telephone interview.
But it is far from clear that the Awami
League is ready to compromise with its rival.
Bangladesh’s leader, Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina, has signaled her willingness to call early elections ahead of schedule,
acknowledging that the new government would have a weak mandate. But in
interviews, Awami League leaders laid out a formidable list of preconditions
for the B.N.P., including renouncing violence; ending its alliance with
Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamic political party; and dropping
its demand for a caretaker government.
“You have to understand, a party like the
Awami League cannot surrender to another political party on the basis of their
demands,” said Tofail Ahmed, one of the Awami League’s leaders. “We will try
our best to have negotiations with the opposition, so that in the future there
is a participatory, credible election where all parties will participate. Both
sides will have to sacrifice. I cannot give you a date. I cannot give you a
time.”
The lack of competition produced a bizarre
election, especially given Bangladesh’s tradition of boisterous democracy.
Pro-government candidates ran unopposed in more than half of Parliament’s 300
seats; in those districts, local elections were not held, leaving 48 million
registered voters without any opportunity to vote.
The teams of American and European
observers who have been a regular presence in Bangladesh declined to monitor
the process this year, saying the elections were flawed, leaving only
delegations from India and Bhutan.
Starting in the morning, there was a sense
of foreboding. Television stations led with the news of the fatal beating of an
assistant poll supervisor in the northern district of Thakurgaon. Later in the
day, the police in that district opened fire on opposition activists who were
trying to prevent voters from reaching polling places, killing two of them. A
fourth man was killed in a clash between activists, said Faisal Mahmud, the
district’s assistant police superintendent.
The news made people jumpy. Ataur Rahman,
a street vendor from Thakurgaon, said he had spent the morning calling his
relatives and begging them not to vote, for their own safety.
Mohammad Ibrahim, a lawyer and B.N.P.
activist, said he had spent a month going door to door in his apartment
building trying to persuade residents to boycott the polls. The news coverage
of the attacks on polling stations had greatly helped his efforts, he said.
“We are not threatening anyone, but
definitely they are scared, because they are watching television all the time,”
Mr. Ibrahim said. He added that the violence was “more or less on the shoulders
of B.N.P.” because it had called on supporters to oppose the elections. “In one
sense, this is wrong,” he said. “But in the other sense, this is right, because
no one is listening to our voice. This is the only way to resist the
elections.”
Months of violent protests have taken a
toll on the economy and have injected fear into daily life. Most voters
interviewed expressed frustration with both parties — formidable forces led by tough-minded women who detest each other, Mrs. Hasina and
Khaleda Zia, who has served twice as prime minister.
“This is not a situation where you can
blame one side,” said Mahfuza Jasmine, 40, a journalist, who added that worried
relatives had dissuaded her from working on Sunday. “Our whole politics have
come to this situation, because our politicians are driven by their own egos.”
For weeks, political analysts and foreign
observers have held out hope that once the elections were over, the two parties
would see no option other than to compromise. But the tolerance of each side
for the other has been diminishing for years, and it is unclear whether it is
possible to break the deadlock, even under intense pressure, said Zafar Sobhan,
the editor of The Dhaka Tribune.
“In the past, there was some kind of
compact between the Awami League and the B.N.P. — they didn’t like each other,
but they could coexist,” Mr. Sobhan said, adding that this appeared to have
changed.
“I don’t really see that there is much
scope for them to find common ground,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be any
ground common enough.”
Julfikar Ali Manik contributed reporting from Dhaka.
