I/III. http://www.thedailystar.net/al-wins-three-fourths-of-house-seats-5580
*10TH JS POLLS* AL wins three-fourths of House seats [image: AL wins three-fourths of House seats] *Star Online Report* Awami League has secured more than three-fourths seats in the 10th parliamentary election winning 105 out of the 147 seats up for election yesterday, according to unofficial results. With the 127 seats it won uncontested earlier, the party now remains victorious in 231 out of total 300 constituencies. Meanwhile, Jatiya Party (JP) won 13 seats while Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) won two and Workers Party (WP) won four seats. Independent candidates won in 13 constituencies. One candidate each from Bangladesh Nationalist Front (BNF), Bangladesh Tarikat Federation came victorious. The Election Commission decided to hold the polls again in 8 constituencies -- Dinajpur-4, Kurigram-4, Gaibandha-1, Gaibandha-3, Gaibandha-4, Jessore-5 and Laksmipur-1 -- following violence. *Published: **12:13 am Monday, January 06, 2014* *Last modified: **8:04 pm Monday, January 06, 2014* II/III. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/bangladesh-ruling-party-wins-boycotted-vote-21430435?singlePage=true Bangladesh Leaders Vie for Power After Marred Vote DHAKA, Bangladesh January 6, 2014 (AP) By JULHAS ALAM Associated Press For two decades, the "Battling Begums" have been at the forefront of this South Asian nation's politics, vying for power and trading insults in a poisonous rivalry. Now the longstanding enmity between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and opposition leader Khaleda Zia, both of whom earn the honorific "begum" for Muslim women of rank, is once again at the heart of the country's latest political crisis. On Monday, Hasina's ruling Awami League party won one of the most violent elections in the country's history, marred by street fighting, low turnout and a boycott by the opposition that made the results a foregone conclusion. The political gridlock plunges Bangladesh deeper into turmoil and economic stagnation, and could lead to more violence in a deeply impoverished country of 160 million. Some observers say the rivalry is standing in the way of progress and compromise. "The economy is declining, democracy is being weakened and Bangladesh's march toward development is faltering," said Hassan Shahriar, a political analyst in Bangladesh. "The latest election and the opposition violence linked to it shows how they could not care less about the people they say they want to serve." The Awami League won 232 of the 300 elected seats, the Election Commission said, far more than the 151 required to form a government. Because of the opposition boycott, about half the seats were uncontested, allowing the ruling party to rack up many victories. Sunday's vote was bloody: At least 18 people were killed as police fired at protesters, and opposition activists torched more than 100 polling stations. Three more people were killed Monday in lingering pockets of unrest. In a sign of international skepticism over the legitimacy of the elections, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Monday they "do not appear to credibly express the will of the Bangladeshi people." She urged the government and opposition parties to hold immediate dialogue on holding fresh elections as soon as possible, and called on all sides to desist from violence. Political violence has convulsed the country in recent months as opposition activists staged attacks, strikes and transportation blockades to press their demands. Nearly 300 people have been killed since last February. "We are passing our days in fear and anxiety," said Abdur Rahman, an accountant and resident of the capital, Dhaka, where soldiers patrolled the streets Monday. "These two major parties don't care about anything. Only Allah knows what is in store now for us." The opposition had demanded that Hasina's government resign so a neutral administration could oversee the polls, saying Hasina might rig the election if she stayed in office — which she denied. The opposition, led by Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party, boycotted the election after Hasina refused to step aside. It was the culmination of months of squabbling between the two leaders, who spoke for the first time in years in October in an acrimonious telephone call. "I called you around noon. You didn't pick up," said Hasina, according to a transcript published in The Dhaka Tribune newspaper. Zia snapped back, "You have to listen to me first." The country has been ruled by either of these women — both from powerful political families — for nearly 22 years. Their power is more a reflection of South Asia's penchant for political dynasties than of the role of women in this Muslim nation. Hasina is the daughter of Bangladesh's founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was assassinated in 1975. And Zia is the widow of another assassinated leader, military ruler Ziaur Rahman, who was killed in 1981. The women have worked together in the past, joining forces to oust a military regime in 1990. But they became rivals in the following year's elections and the relationship has become deeply bitter and caustic ever since. Hasina suspects Zia helped plot the military coup that toppled her father in 1975 that also saw the killing of most of his family members. Hasina was forced to stay in exile in India when Zia's husband was in power. He was killed in another military coup in 1981 months after Hasina's return home from exile — and Zia suspects Hasina was involved in her husband's ouster and assassination. Another thorn between the two women is Zia's alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest Islamic political party. Hasina has put top Jamaat leaders on trial on war crimes charges stemming from Bangladesh's war of independence against Pakistan in 1971. Asked Monday about her rivalry with Zia, Hasina said it was not personal but "absolutely ideological." "They have failed to stop the election. The election has been fair. I'm satisfied," she told reporters. Voter turnout was 40 percent, according to the Election Commission. In the last election, in 2008, turnout was 87 percent. The election raises pressure on Hasina's government to hold talks with the opposition. An extended impasse will almost certainly continue to batter the economy as Bangladesh tries to emerge from suffocating poverty and reinvigorate its $20 billion garment industry. Dhaka's Daily Star newspaper described the polls as the deadliest in the country's history, and said in an editorial that the Awami League won "a predictable and hollow victory, which gives it neither a mandate nor an ethical standing to govern effectively." It also was critical of the opposition's role in fueling violence. "Political parties have the right to boycott elections. They also have the right to motivate people to side with their position," it said. "But what is unacceptable is using violence and intimidation to thwart an election." III. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/06/us-bangladesh-election-idUSBREA0301N20140106 Bangladesh PM says new polls depend on opposition ending violence BY NANDITA BOSE AND SERAJUL QUADIR DHAKA Mon Jan 6, 2014 10:50am EST (Reuters) - A day after rolling to victory in an election boycotted by the main opposition and plagued by deadly unrest, Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina held to her stance that fresh polls could be called only if her rivals halt violence. With the opposition already having called a 48-hour strike and seven people killed in clashes on Monday, the crisis showed no sign of easing, risking further unrest and damage to the $22 billion garment industry that accounts for 80 percent of exports. Hasina's Awami League ended with more than two-thirds of seats in a contest that was shunned by international observers as flawed and derided as a farce by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). With fewer than half the seats contested, the outcome was never in doubt. "An election can happen any time when BNP comes for a dialogue, but they must stop violence," Hasina, 64, said on the lawn at her official residence. Many BNP leaders are in jail or in hiding, and party chief Begum Khaleda Zia says she is under virtual house arrest, which the government denies. "The ongoing crisis will not be resolved by keeping me virtually confined to my house and carrying out oppression on the opposition," Khaleda said in a statement on Monday calling for the poll to be scrapped and a new election called. Hasina and Khaleda, 68, are bitter rivals who have alternated as prime minister for all but two of the past 22 years. ROBUST GROWTH Ataur Rahman, a professor of political science at Dhaka University, said the standoff imperils the momentum of five years of robust growth in the impoverished nation of 160 million. The economy grew six percent in the fiscal year that ended in June, and multilateral agencies expect growth of 5.5 to 5.8 percent in the current year. "The longer the impasse, the longer Bangladesh suffers," Rahman said. "And unfortunately everyone understands this other than our two top leaders." The BNP denounces Hasina's scrapping of the practice of having a caretaker government oversee elections. The Awami League says the interim government system has proved a failure. With the BNP on the sidelines and voters worried about violence, turnout was expected to have been low. An election official, who declined to be identified because the figure was not final, told Reuters that turnout was nearly 40 percent. A monitoring organization, the Election Working Group, had put turnout at 30 percent, according to the Dhaka Tribune. In the last election, in 2008, a record 83 percent of voters cast ballots. In a 1996 election boycotted by the Awami League, 21 percent voted. The European Union, a duty free market for nearly 60 percent of Bangladesh's garment exports, refused to send election observers, as did the United States and the Commonwealth, a grouping of 53 mainly former British colonies. "It is ... disappointing that voters in more than half the constituencies did not have the opportunity to express their will at the ballot box and that turnout in most other constituencies was low," Sayeeda Warsi, a senior British Foreign Office minister, said in a statement. Five people were killed on the outskirts of Dhaka on Monday in a clash between supporters, with two more fatalities in rural areas, continuing a spate of violence that saw 18 people killed during polling on Sunday and more than 100 in the run-up to the election. (Additional reporting by Ruma Paul; Writing by Tony Munroe; Editing by Nick Macfie and Alister Doyle) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. 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