Election 2008- What world’s saying! Rumi, December 30, 2008 UPDATED ON: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 08:30 Mecca time, 05:30 GMT News CENTRAL/S. ASIA Hasina triumphs in Bangladesh vote Supporters of Hasina’s Awami League party celebrate as early results suggested a landslide win [AFP] An alliance led by Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the former Bangladeshi prime minister, has won a landslide election victory in the country’s first poll in seven years. Election officials on Tuesday said that according to preliminary results Hasina’s Awami League party and allied groups took around 250 of the 300 parliamentary seats. Around 30 seats have gone to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by Begum Khaleda Zia, another former prime minister and Hasina’s key rival for power. The exact breakdown of seats is not yet clear but the Awami League is thought to have taken around 229 directly. Nuh Alam Lenin, a spokesman for the Awami League, said: “Our leader has called for change and the people have responded to her call. “They have given a thumping verdict against corruption and criminalisation of the past regime,” he said. The Awami League, led by Hasina, ruled Bangladesh from 1996-2001. Profiles Sheikh Hasina Wajed Khaleda Zia Monday’s parliamentary vote was meant to return Bangladesh, a country of more than 140 million people, to democracy after two years of emergency rule imposed by an military-backed government. While final results are still awaited, Sheikh Hasina’s associates called for patience. “Our leader Sheikh Hasina has appealed to her party and supporters not to stage victory marches or engage in any kind of celebration until the final results are announced by the election commission,” Abul Kalam Azad, her spokesman said in a television broadcast. ‘Voter intimidation’ However, the BNP said on Tuesday that its supporters were unable to vote in various parts of the country, and confirmed it planned to file a complaint. Monitors say the vote went smoothly despite claims of voter intimidation [Reuters] “We have reports that BNP supporters were barred from coming to the polls and also were driven away from polling stations in many places,” Rizvi Ahmed said on local television. Zia herself had said on Monday that if the election was fair, she would win. However, election officials and monitors said the polls were mostly peaceful, and saw few glitches. Previous elections have been marred by violence and widespread accusations of vote-rigging.”The election ended in a very peaceful environment and I never saw such a congenial atmosphere. The turnout was tremendous,” Taleya Rehman, executive director of Democracy Watch, a monitoring group, told the Reuters news agency. A military-backed interim government took control of Bangladesh in January 2007 amid widespread political violence and cancelled elections. The winner of Monday’s vote will have to tackle the corruption, widespread poverty and chronic political and social unrest which prompted the military to intervene. Although both jailed by the interim military government on charges of corruption, Zia and Hasina both campaigned on promises to fight endemic graft. Bangladeshi political parties tend to be driven by personalities rather than ideology, and analysts say it may be less important who won Monday’s election than that the losers accept the results. Back to Story – Help – Print Story Big Hasina majority in Bangladesh – unofficial results Nizam Ahmed and Jerry NortonTue, Dec 30 07:46 AM An alliance led by Bangladesh’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina won a massive parliamentary majority in the country’s first polls in seven years, unofficial results showed, but a rival party complained of irregularities. Analysts said it was unclear if the losers would accept the results or take their supporters onto the streets to protest. Political confrontations, strikes and street violence have often hampered the effectiveness of Bangladeshi governments. “It’s critical that both sides accept the result of what appears to be a free and fair election. If not, Bangladesh risks sliding back into the anarchy, violence and corruption that have characterised its past,” U.S.-based Asian Society Fellow Sheridan Prasso told Reuters. Unofficial results from election centres around the country showed Hasina’s “Grand Alliance” led by her Awami League had so far won 240 seats in the 300-seat parliament. Just 31 had gone to a group led by Begum Khaleda Zia, another former prime minister and Hasina’s rival for power. The Monday parliamentary vote returned Bangladesh, a country of more than 140 million people, to democracy after two years of emergency rule imposed by an army-backed interim government. The winner will have to tackle the endemic corruption as well as the chronic political and social unrest which prompted the military to intervene. Official results are not expected until Tuesday evening, and Hasina’s Awami League urged supporters to wait for those. “Our leader Sheikh Hasina has appealed to her party and supporters not to stage victory marches or engage in any kind of celebration until the final results are announced by the election commission,” her spokesman Abul Kalam Azad told reporters. A leader of Khaleda’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party said its supporters were kept from voting in various parts of the country, and it planned to file a complaint. “We have reports that BNP supporters were barred from coming to polls and also were driven away from polling stations in many places,” BNP official Rizvi Ahmed told a news conference. PEACEFUL POLLS The poll was generally peaceful, with both independent monitors and many voters saying they saw few glitches. Previous elections were marred by widespread accusations of vote-rigging. “The election ended in a very peaceful environment and I never saw such a congenial atmosphere. The turnout was tremendous,” Taleya Rehman, executive director of monitoring group Democracy Watch, told Reuters. The United States also praised the vote. “All Bangladeshis can take great pride in the success of these elections. The high voter turnout underscores the people’s desire to see democracy restored,” Gordon Duguid, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement. The statement urged losing candidates to continue to participate in the political process. The military-backed interim government took control of Bangladesh in January 2007 amid widespread political violence, and cancelled elections due that month. Populist rivals Hasina and Khaleda alternated in power for 15 years up to 2006. Critics say they failed to resolve Bangladesh’s problems partly because of protests, strikes and street violence linked to their parties when out of office. The turbulence kept investors away and distracted government from other challenges. Considering that background, analysts said it may be less important who won than that the losers accept the results. Bangladesh’s neighbours worry that an increasingly violent Islamist militant minority could provide support and shelter for radicals in their own countries. Most Bangladesh Muslims are moderates, however. Analysts said Khaleda suffered from the presence in her alliance of Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami. Its chief and other leaders lost their seats as its parliamentary members dropped from 17 to 2. Hasina had pledged to crack down on violent extremists, and to contain prices and promote growth in a country where 45 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Business leader Abdul Awal Mintoo said in a panel discussion that despite its apparent huge majority, “the Awami League should form a government of consensus with the opposition”. (Additional reporting by Anis Ahmed) Powered by SAVE THIS | EMAIL THIS | Close Awami League wins Bangladesh election Story Highlights NEW: Awami League claims nearly 230 of the 300 seats in parliament The rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party is in second with 31 seats Polls were the first after two years of an army-backed caretaker government The balloting went off peacefully, except for a few skirmishes DHAKA, Bangladesh (CNN) — Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League won a landslide victory in Bangladesh’s first national elections in seven years, claiming nearly 230 of the 300 seats in parliament, the country’s electoral commission reported. With 295 contests decided, the Awami League had won 228 seats, giving it far more than the two-thirds majority needed to change the country’s constitution, the commission reported. The league’s closest rival, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, won 27 seats, with one seat to be contested later. The results are an overwhelming win for Hasina over her longtime archrival, the BNP’s Khaleda Zia, in the first vote since an army-backed caretaker government took power in 2006. The rivalry between the two former prime ministers runs so deep that they are known in the country as the “Battling Begums,” for an honorific given to women of rank in the country. Monday’s balloting went off peacefully, except for a few isolated incidents of skirmishes and people complaining of not finding their names on voter rolls. Asif Saleh, executive director of the human rights group Drishtipat, told CNN that the turnout was close to 70 percent. “On one hand, it was sending a clear message that the people of Bangladesh believe in democracy,” Saleh said. “But on the other hand it’s also that they are looking for a sweeping change in the country.” He said anti-incumbent sentiment appeared to damage the BNP, which was in power for the five years before a 2006 state of emergency that was lifted only weeks ago. “What was surprising was the kind of scale of the change,” he said. Political analysts say the true test of whether democracy can flourish in this Muslim-majority nation of 150 million people begins now. After its last stint in power ended in 2006, the BNP handed over rule to a caretaker government to conduct elections, as mandated by the country’s constitution. But the Awami League refused to recognize the neutrality of the interim government, and Hasina accused Zia of stocking it with BNP backers. Supporters of both sides took to the streets in months of deadly clashes. To stem the tide of violence, a military-backed government took control in January 2007 and imposed an indefinite state of emergency, banning political events and postponing elections until it said it could clean up the country’s graft-ridden politics. Zia served a term as prime minister in 1991, Hasina in 1996 and Zia once again in 2001. As one took office, the other led strikes and street protests that kept the Muslim-majority country of 150 million people politically unstable and financially radioactive to international investors. Both face allegations of corruption, which each have dismissed as politically motivated. And Hasina was forced to curtail her campaign activities, relying on videoconferencing to address crowds as police investigated a report by CNN-IBN that a fundamentalist Muslim group had dispatched a six-member suicide squad to assassinate her. The group, Harkat ul Jihad al Islami is banned in Bangladesh. Hasina survived a prior attempt on her life in 2004 when extremists threw grenades at a rally, killing 20 and wounding hundreds. Past elections in Bangladesh have been marred by widespread instances of ballot box-stuffing and voter intimidation. To prevent a similar outcome this go-around, the election commission took unprecedented steps — deploying 600,000 troops to maintain security and thousands of local and international observers to monitor the polls and issuing voter identification cards to 81 million eligible voters. The caretaker government that took power in 2006 adopted emergency powers that allowed authorities to arrest a person without a court warrant as long as there was reasonable suspicion that he or she was related to a crime, said the New York-based group, Human Rights Watch. A wave of detentions followed, and residents rejoiced at the drop in crime. By some estimates, more than 90,000 people were detained before some were released and others charged. The state of emergency was lifted on December 17, leaving politicians less than two weeks to campaign. Among those arrested in the interim were more than 150 top politicians, including Hasina — charged with taking bribes — and Zia — facing charges of graft of improperly awarding a multi-million dollar government contract. CNN’s Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report. Bangladesh stunned by Awami victory By Sabir Mustafa BBC News, Dhaka Bangladesh is set for a government with the biggest parliamentary majority since 1973, following Monday’s general elections designed to bring an end to two years of military-backed rule. In an election marked by high turnout and few incidents, the centre-left Awami League – headed by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina – and its allies pulled off a stunning victory, winning a two-thirds majority in the single-chamber national assembly. The Mohajot (Grand Coalition) alliance practically demolished its rivals, the centre-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its Islamist ally the Jamaat-e-Islami. All top leaders of the Jamaat lost their seats. The sheer scale of the Awami League’s victory has left people searching for an explanation. Even the party’s leaders appear to be taking a pause for thought. “We were certainly expecting victory, but perhaps not as big as this,” said Abul Mal Abdul Muhith, a senior Awami League leader from the Sylhet region who is tipped to become the next finance minister. “This is clearly a major challenge for us, we have to deliver,” Mr Muhith told the BBC Bengali service in an interview. People’s will? As results came through from different parts of the country, pundits and analysts dug deep to construct a plausible cause for the BNP’s debacle. “It is clearly a robust expression of people’s will,” said Mahfuz Anam, editor of the Daily Star newspaper. “First-time voters made up nearly a third of the total, and these young voters rejected the BNP’s negative campaign based on religion and fear.” A rejection of the BNP was not the only factor in the result. The Awami League, which led Bangladesh to independence in 1971, is often accused to living in the past. But this time they surprised everyone with a new-look campaign and softer rhetoric. “The Awami League was seen as an unfashionable, rather rustic party in the 1980s,” said Muzammil Hussain, deputy editor of the daily Samakal. “But the party’s manifesto this time as well as its campaign strategy had touches of modernity which appealed to the young.” It is rare for Bangladeshi politicians to offer a vision to the young, but veteran journalist Amanullah Kabir agreed that the Awami League leader appeared to have done just that. ”Sheikh Hasina’s call to build a digital Bangladesh, with specific goals for economic development, gave the young something to dream about, and they have voted en masse for that dream”, said Mr Kabir. Such big victories please the party faithful, but the neutral are always a little fearful. They point out that the BNP and its alliance won a two-thirds majority in 2001, and produced what many people considered to be the most corrupt government in the country’s history. Awami League leaders were quick to calm fears that its overwhelming majority would make it autocratic in power. ”We have a great victory, but no matter how few seats the opposition have, we will make every effort to include them in policy making,” Hasan Mahmud, a close aide to Sheikh Hasina, told the BBC Bengali service in an interview. ‘Guns and goons’ The elections mark a personal triumph for Sheikh Hasina, whose political career seemed at an end last year when she was jailed on charges of corruption. Ms Hasina had often been bracketed with her bitter rival Khaleda Zia of the BNP, with both being accused of allowing “guns and goons” to become part of the country’s political fabric. Their rivalry became known as Battle of the Begums, the term for a woman of high social rank. Detractors claimed that Bangladeshi politics could be reformed only if the two ladies stepped aside. This deliberate policy to remove the the two ladies became known as the Minus Two formula. The caretaker government in 2007 used its emergency powers to try and force Ms Hasina and Ms Khaleda into exile. The effort failed miserably. The next attempt was to try and get the two parties themselves to ditch their leaders. They found no takers. Next came attempts to split the major parties and create “reformist” factions with an aim to effect changes in leadership. It only made reform a dirty word in Bangladeshi politics. In a final throw of the dice, the government sent both the ladies to jail, and slapped a number of corruption charges against them. An impression soon took hold that they would be convicted and thus disqualified from holding office. But by then the government’s failure to halt spiralling food prices had ended the public’s infatuation with the army-backed regime. A sense of drift had gripped the caretaker regime with no clear goal in sight. Price to pay It was not long before the caretaker government began searching for a way out. Elections were seen as the only plausible exit strategy, but such elections would only succeed if the two major parties, led by the two Begums, took part. The government had already set December 2008 as the target date for general elections, and it stuck to the time-table. But there was a price. The political reforms they had promised did not materialise. They had to largely soften their their much-trumpeted anti-corruption drive. The two Begums, far from being sidelined, were put back into the equation. Monday’s elections mark not only the triumph of one and the defeat of the other. It also marks the total failure of the Minus Two formula. There is one silver lining in the cloud for the men and women who have ruled Bangladesh since a state of emergency was declared on 11 January 2007. These elections are likely to go down in history as the first universally-credible polls in the country’s history. The defeated BNP has already raised questions about alleged polling irregularities. But these complaints are unlikely to find any support outside their party offices. 欢迎访问新华网 – WWW.XINHUANET.COM >> Bangladeshi former PM wins landslide victory in Parliamentary election A man takes notes from result sheets of the 9th parliament elections at Bangladesh Election Commission in Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, on Dec. 30, 2008. Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League won victory in the country’s 9th Parliamentary election held on Monday, an official of the Election Commission said on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Qamruzzaman)Photo Gallery>>> DHAKA, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) — Bangladeshi former prime minister Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League won victory in the country’s 9th Parliamentary election held on Monday, an official of the Election Commission said on Tuesday. The official said in a press conference Awami League won 229 seats out of the 295 seats which have already got the polls results. The official said Awami League’s main rival former prime minister Khaleda Zia-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party won 27 seats. The official said the results for 2 seats will come out later Tuesday and the announcement of results for another 2 seats were postponed because of some irregularities. A total of 1,555 candidates from 39 parties and independents contested 299 seats out of 300 seats in the 9th Parliamentary election. The election for one seat will be held on Jan. 12, next year due to the death of one candidate. Hasina’s alliance scripts stunning victory in B’desh polls Anisur Rahman Dhaka, Dec 30 (PTI) Awami League-led alliance headed by Sheikh Hasina, who has a good equation with Indian leadership and favours strong ties with New Delhi, today won a landslide victory in Bangladesh’s general elections held under a neutral caretaker government after nearly two years of emergency rule. The Election Commission has so far announced “unofficial” results of 295 seats of the 300-seat parliament saying, the Hasina’s alliance won 258 seats while her archrival ex-premier Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led four-party grouping won in 31 constituencies. Five seats went to other small parties and independents while results of the four others were pending. A beaming Hasina, who lost power to Zia’s BNP by a huge margin in 2001, asked her party to show restraint and not to stage any victory processions until the results were officially published. She also urged her rivals to accept the results to end the years of confrontational politics. “Our leader has called for change and the people have responded to her call,” AL spokesman Nuh Alam Lenin said soon after the poll out come was known. “They have given a thumping verdict against corruption and criminalisation of the past regime,” he said. Meanwhile, Zia’s BNP was quick to raise the issue of electoral fraud. “There have been a lot of irregularities,” BNP spokesman Rizvi Ahmed said. He alleged that his party supporters were kept from voting, and their polling agents and officials were barred from performing their duties. Hasina, who is close to New Delhi, was in power from 1996-2001 and during the period Bangladesh’s bilateral ties with India were at its best. The historic Ganges water sharing treaty between the two countries was signed during her regime. PTI Collected Articles Uncategorized Thoughts