Bangladesh Opposition Demands New Elections

Bangladesh’s opposition leader, Sheik Hasina Wazed, Thursday demanded new elections in many areas of the country in the wake of national parliamentary balloting that was plagued by fraud and violence.

Hasina, president of the Awami League, a political party that finished second in the disputed election to a new government-backed party, asked for new voting in “at least 50” of the 300 parliamentary constituencies.

But she also reduced chances of a harsh confrontation with the martial-law regime of President Hussain Mohammed Ershad by announcing that she and other winning candidates from her party will take their seats in Parliament despite the allegations of fraud.

Hasina, 38, daughter of Bangladesh’s founder, Sheik Mujibur Rahman, said that “through Parliament we plan to continue our movement.”

Incomplete unofficial returns showed Awami winning 80 seats, compared to more than 140 for the government-backed Jatiya Party, which was created by Ershad as one of his moves to return the nation to civilian rule. Ershad, army chief of staff, took power in a 1982 coup.

By this morning the Bangladesh election commission had still not announced official results.

Earlier, diplomats had wondered if Hasani would be satisfied enough with 80 seats to participate in Parliament, a question that seemed to be answered by her statement Thursday.

Meanwhile, more reports of violence and election abuses reached the capital. Hasina complained about election boxes being dumped into rivers and of ballots being burned in several cities.

Wednesday’s vote was only the third parliamentary election in Bangladesh’s 15-year history. But it was a joyless event in this overpopulated land, one of the poorest in the world, with more than 100 million people in a territory the size of Wisconsin.

More than two dozen persons died, hundreds were injured and countless cases of vote fraud were reported by Bangladeshis and independent foreign observers.

“What could and should have been a historic return to democracy in Bangladesh was a tragedy,” said a report by members of a British parliamentary team invited by a committee of prominent Bangladeshis to observe the election.

Lord Ennals, leader of the British delegation, reported seeing election workers beaten, polling stations attacked by gangs armed with gasoline bombs and widespread fraud.

“In two polling stations I actually saw polling officers busily stamping ballot forms and placing them in the ballot boxes when no voters were present,” Ennals said.

Meeting with reporters Thursday, Ershad appeared stung by criticism of the elections.

“I deserve congratulations from the nation that I could hold elections,” the president Ershad said. “Nobody in the country can say the elections were rigged.”

Ershad agreed with opposition leaders about instances of voting irregularities but asserted that they were the work of the opposition as well as government party members.

The president vigorously denied charges that he controlled the number of seats allotted to government and opposition parties.

“These seats are not chocolates that I can distribute,” he said.