Bangladesh's former prime minister, Begum Khaleda Zia, has accused the government and her rivals with conspiring to rig Monday's parliamentary election, rhetoric that could set the stage for protests and violence if she loses. The December 29 vote will mark a return to democracy for the Indian Ocean country after two years of a military-backed government that suspended many political rights.
A democratically chosen civilian government may attract much-needed aid and investment to the nation of more than 140 million, some 45 percent of whom live below the poverty line. But protests and possible violence from disgruntled losers could spoil that scenario, analysts say. Khaleda alleges the government and Election Commission want to fix the results against her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
"They are conspiring to bring a loyal party and their stooges to power," she said on Wednesday. "Also, they are trying to scare me out of the polls, and even to kill me," she said, referring to live grenades found this week near a spot where she addressed her supporters.
National police chief Noor Mohammad said authorities had no information of any "organised attempt" on top politicians' lives. Local police reported arrests of three Islamist militants who had explosives and bomb-making ingredients.
Separately a European Union election observation team official said on Thursday it has had good co-operation from the authorities in its effort to assess the voting process. Khaleda has said that if the BNP-led alliance loses, "the people will not accept" the outcome.
"SCARE TACTICS": Her rival Sheikh Hasina, chief of the Awami League and a former prime minister, said Khaleda "is now using scare tactics linked to the finding of grenades and making false accusations". Hasina and Khaleda, who alternated as prime minister for 15 years through 2006, are principal contenders in the vote to replace the interim government, which took over amid political instability and violence in January 2007.
It cancelled an election due that month, imposed a state of emergency and launched a crackdown on corruption. But expectations new political leaders might emerge under the interim authorities proved ill-founded, and Hasina and Khaleda, detained for alleged graft, were released to ensure their parties took part in the polls to make them credible.
Some analysts fear the parties and army may not abandon old habits. "There are no guarantees that the losing party or the military will accept the election results," a Eurasia Group commentary said this week. The government, meanwhile, says things will go smoothly.
"I would like to reassure all that the election will be held on schedule and nothing, including security fears, can distract it," home affairs adviser (minister) M.A. Matin told reporters. Some 2,000 foreign observers and around 200,000 local monitors will track the election process for fairness. "So far we've had good co-operation" from Bangladesh authorities, Graham Elson, Deputy Chief Observer of the EU Election Observation Mission, told Reuters.
As to where the team's 150 observers would be watching, "there's no restrictions on us at all," he added. Despite candidate Khaleda's comments about possible assassination plots, she left her bullet-proof car and guarded convoy on Thursday to talk to farmers harvesting rice.
Bangladesh's first-ever computerised voter list has registered 81 million voters with photographs to try to avoid fraud. The previous list, for the aborted 2007 election, had over 12 million fake names, the Election Commission says. The EU observation team will give a preliminary report on its findings two days after the vote, Elson said.
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