Bangladesh heads to polls under shadow of boycott to elect new parliament

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Amid a call for boycott and shutdown, people in Bangladesh on Sunday headed to polls to elect the new parliament of the South Asian nation.

The voting, which began at 8 a.m. (0200GMT), will continue until 4 p.m. (1000GMT).

Around 120 million voters are registered to take part in polls to elect 300 lawmakers to the parliament, locally known as the Sansad.

While the Awami League party and its ally Jatiya Party have their candidates standing in elections, the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami party have boycotted the election.

Their candidates did not file any nomination for the election.

People are observing a shutdown after opposition parties called for boycott, alleging the polls were "one-sided."

On Saturday, chief election commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal regretted that "desired political participation and competition is not happening in this election."

Awal said it deployed a total of 800,000 members of law enforcement, including armed forces, in a total 42,000 polling centers to ensure a peaceful election.​​​​​​​