Bangladesh began voting on Sunday in an election guaranteed to give a fifth term in office to prime minister Sheikh Hasina, after a boycott led by an opposition party she branded a “terrorist organisation”.
Hasina has presided over exceptional economic growth in a country once beset by grinding poverty, but her government has been accused of rampant human rights abuses and a ruthless opposition crackdown.
Hasina’s party faces almost no effective rivals in the seats it is contesting but has avoided fielding candidates in a few seats, in an apparent effort to avoid the legislature being labelled a one-party institution.
The Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP), whose ranks have been decimated by mass arrests, is leading a weekend general strike urging the public not to participate in what it calls a “sham” election.
