Election Day

Living abroad makes me realize what I take for granted at home. Free, fair and safe elections, for example. Bangladesh held its national elections on December 29th. We received an email entitled "Election Safety" that included the following: "It is always good to turn up at the poll center early morning and finish the voting procedure early and come back." This is in order to avoid the possibility of getting stuck in a riot.

Only students with a voter ID card were allowed to leave the building, and the teachers were under house-arrest for the day, as well. There were few disruptions during pre-election time. Only groups of men chanting and CNG's driving around with megaphones perched on top, blaring campaign slogans. Pre-election time is normally peaceful, I was told, but the real concern is that there will be riots and violence after a winner is announced. Hence the reason for this blog post coming a week after the event-- didn't want to worry Mom :) I crossed my fingers that everything would go smoothly, bought some extra food, and hoped the country didn't go into lockdown.

Bangladeshi politics are so corrupt that the ballot includes a tick box for each of the two candidates, and a third choice for "none of the above". According to the BBC, it doesn't really matter who wins. Both women have been in politics for so long and both were jailed last year on corruption charges. Elections were supposed to occur over a year ago, but because of rampant political corruption and frequent public disruptions, a state of emergency was declared. A caretaker government administered by the military was imposed. The state of emergency was lifted just a few weeks ago, in order to allow for the assembly of citizens at political meetings and rallies.

The elections went smoothly. No public gatherings, even in celebration, were allowed after the results came out. Heard a few groups of men chanting and parading down the street, but nothing major. Sheika Hasina of the Awami League won Prime Minister, by a wide margin. Her opponent, Khaldea Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, immediately alleged massive "poll-rigging" and voting fraud. But she has since let up and agreed to cooperate with the new government. Stay tuned for that!