With the ballot outcome all but assured and a high risk of violence, turnout could be low on Sunday.
Violence erupted on the eve of the election, with a passenger train fire, which the government called arson, killing at least four people while several polling booths and institutions were set ablaze around the country.
Troops have fanned out across Bangladesh to maintain peace while nearly 800,000 police, paramilitary and police auxiliaries will guard polling booths on Sunday.
In her last 15 years in power, Hasina, 76, has been credited with turning around Bangladesh’s economy and the garment industry. But critics have also accused her of authoritarianism, human rights violations, crackdowns on free speech and suppression of dissent.
Her main rival and two-time premier, BNP leader Khaleda Zia, is effectively under house arrest on corruption charges the opposition says have been trumped up.
Khaleda’s son, Tarique Rahman, is the acting chairman of the party, but he is in exile, facing charges that he denies.
The economy has also slowed sharply since the Russia-Ukraine war pushed up prices of fuel and food imports, forcing Bangladesh to turn to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout of US$4.7 billion last year.
Source: CNA
