Violence curbed Bangladesh poll turnout, says Sheikh Hasina’s son

NEW DELHI: The voter turnout in Bangladesh’s parliamentary polls would have crossed the half-way mark if the opposition, led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) -Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), had not resorted to large-scale violence, says Sajeeb Wazed, son of Sheikh Hasina, who is now on course to lead the country for a second successive term. Bangladesh held its 10th parliamentary polls on Sunday amid boycott opposition’s, which demanded a neutral caretaker government to oversee polls. Elections were marred by violence in which 21 lives were lost.

However, Wazed, who is widely tipped to succeed Hasina as the chief of ruling Awami League, told ET that the voters rejected BNP-Jamaat’s call for boycotting the polls. "They continued their violence to intimidate voters from polls and voter turnout was slow early in the day because of fear of attacks. I have no doubt that if the BNP-Jamaat had not continued their terror attacks, voter turnout would have crossed 50%," Wazed said in an email interview.

Wazed, popularly known as Joy, has a strong India connection by virtue of his stint in Bangalore University as an engineering student.

"While media is reporting that overall turnout so far is about 40%, we don’t have final figures yet. In two Bangladesh districts voter turnout was 51%. In Prime Minister Hasina’s home district of Gopalganj, voter turnout was an overwhelming 96%, Joy said.

India endorses B’desh elections

NEW DELHI: India on Monday endorsed the Jan-5 elections as a 'constitutional requirement' and stressed that it was for people of Bangladesh to decide their future. External affairs ministry's spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said: "They (elections) are a part of internal and constitutional process of Bangladesh. Violence can’t and shouldn’t determine the way forward. The democratic processes must be allowed to take their own course."