BNP did not participate in election anticipating defeat, says Bangladesh Home Minister

Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) did not participate in the parliamentary elections because it knew that it would lose, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said on Sunday. “The BNP has taken a strategy of boycotting the election with various excuses, various demands. They participated in the 2018 election and got some parliamentary seats, but this year they did not participate knowing they would be defeated,” Khan, a senior leader of the ruling Awami League, was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune newspaper.

Khan made the comments while talking to reporters after casting his vote at Monipuripara in Dhaka’s Farmgate area.

The BNP is involved in killing people and arson attacks just as they did in 2014, he alleged.

“People do not want such torture and violence. So, they are coming to the polling stations in a festive mood,” he added.

Voting for the 12th parliamentary election ended on Sunday amid sporadic violence and a boycott by the main opposition party BNP and its allies.

Ahead of the elections, Hasina’s government arrested thousands of rival politicians and supporters, a move which rights groups have condemned as an attempt to paralyse the Opposition.

As part of its boycott campaign, the BNP enforced intermittent transport blockades and strikes for the past three months.

Hasina, 76, has been in power since 2009 and her Awami League won the last election in December 2018.

She is set to secure a fourth consecutive term as prime minister and a fifth overall term in the one-sided election.

Hasina’s ruling Awami League (AL) is expected to win the election as the BNP of former premier Khaleda Zia, 78, who is under house arrest as a convict of graft charges, boycotted the polls.

A total of 119.6 million registered voters were eligible to vote at Sunday’s polls in more than 42,000 polling stations, according to the country’s Election Commission.

More than 1,500 candidates from 27 political parties were contesting in the election, besides 436 independent candidates.

Over 100 foreign observers, including three from India, monitored the 12th general election, which is being held under tight security.

More than 7.5 lakh members of law enforcement agencies and security forces have been deployed to ensure law and order during the polls.

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