\n
But Hasina, 76, urged the public to cast their ballots and show their faith in the democratic process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe BNP is a terrorist organisation,\u201d she told waiting reporters after casting her vote at the Dhaka City College, alongside her sister and daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am trying my best to ensure that democracy should continue in this country,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Early signs suggested turnout would be low, despite widespread reports of carrot-and-stick inducements aimed at bolstering the poll\u2019s legitimacy.<\/p>\n
Only three people had cast ballots in the first 30 minutes of voting at one polling station in the capital Dhaka, AFP reporters saw.<\/p>\n
Some voters said they had been threatened with the confiscation of government benefit cards needed to access welfare payments if they refused to cast ballots for the ruling Awami League.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said they would seize it from me if I don\u2019t vote,\u201d Lal Mia, 64, told the AFP news agency in the central district of Faridpur.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said since the government feeds us, we have to vote for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) and other parties staged months of protests last year demanding Hasina step down ahead of the vote.<\/p>\n
About 25,000 opposition cadres including the BNP\u2019s entire local leadership were arrested in the ensuing crackdown, the party says. The government puts the figure at 11,000.<\/p>\n
Source: The Guardian<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bangladesh began voting on Sunday in an election guaranteed to give a\u00a0fifth term in office to prime minister Sheikh Hasina, after a boycott led by an opposition party she branded a \u201cterrorist organisation\u201d. Hasina has presided over exceptional economic growth in a country once beset by grinding poverty, but her government has been accused of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":423331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-423330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":423332,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423330\/revisions\/423332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}