DHAKA: Bangladesh
tightened security yesterday for an election expected to see Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina win a record fourth term but dominated by opposition claims that
they have been shackled by a government clampdown. Authorities have deployed
around 600,000 police, army and other security forces ahead of today's vote, a
senior official said, following a deadly campaign of clashes and the arrests of
opposition activists.

The forces -- which
also include the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), navy, border and coast
guards and auxiliary police units -- will guard some 40,000 election booths
across the poor South Asian nation. "We have ensured the highest level of
security in Bangladesh as per the capacity of the country," Rafiqul Islam
of the election commission told AFP. "We hope there will be a peaceful
atmosphere," he said.

Bangladesh's
telecoms regulator also ordered the country's mobile operators to shut down 3G
and 4G services until midnight on Sunday "to prevent the spread of
rumors", that could trigger unrest, a spokesman said. A heavy police
presence was evident on the streets of the capital Dhaka ahead of the polls
opening at 8:00 am (0200 GMT) Sunday but residents appeared undeterred.
"Voting is important because as a citizen of Bangladesh it is my duty.
I'll cast my vote for my chosen candidate," Siam Ahmed told AFP.

Deaths

Clashes have
gripped the Muslim majority country of 165 million in the run-up to the vote,
in which the ruling Awami League and opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(BNP) are leading their own alliances. Thirteen people have been killed and
thousands injured in skirmishes between supporters of Hasina and activists of
the BNP, whose leader Khaleda Zia is serving 17 years in prison on graft
charges.

The BNP -- which
boycotted the 2014 election, handing Hasina an easy victory -- says its
supporters have been deliberately targeted in a bid to deter them from voting,
clearing the prime minister's path for a new term. The 71-year-old Hasina has
called for voters to back her to further bolster the economy which has shown
impressive growth during her decade in power. She has rejected accusations of
growing authoritarianism. The BNP -- the main player in an alliance headed by
Kamal Hossain, an 82-year-old Oxford educated lawyer who drew up Bangladesh's
constitution -- has accused the election commission of bias during the
campaign.

The opposition
says more than 14,000 of its activists have been detained since the election
was announced on November 8. The BNP said over 1,100 people were rounded up on
Friday alone. The party also alleges that around 12,000 activists were injured
in attacks by ruling party followers. The Awami League denies the allegation. Sixteen
international human rights groups released a joint statement yesterday saying
the crackdown "compromises the integrity" of the vote. The United
States has raised concerns about the elections while the United Nations called
for greater efforts to make the vote fair. Rafiqul Islam said election
authorities were still hopeful the country's 11th parliamentary polls since
independence from Pakistan in 1971 would be credible.

Arrests

"We're
trying our best to have a free and fair election," he said. A spokesman
for the RAB, Bangladesh's elite security force, said yesterday they had
arrested eight men for spreading rumors on social media ahead of Sunday's poll.
Forty-eight people have been detained by the force in 2018 for spreading
"false information and mocking" Hasina, the spokesman said.

The election
commission has also imposed restrictions on public transport and cars on
polling day in an effort to maintain security for a smooth election, said
Islam. Hasina, daughter of Bangladesh's founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
and now its longest-serving leader, is seeking a third-straight term since
winning a landslide in December 2008.

She has been
praised for presiding over healthy GDP expansion, with the country set to
graduate from a least developed country to a middle income nation, and lauded
for opening Bangladesh's doors to around one million Rohingya refugees fleeing
a military crackdown in Myanmar. But critics accuse her of muzzling free speech
and clamping down on dissent, including through a draconian anti-press law
toughened this year.  - AFP