BD election campaign ends with death, arrests

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s general election campaign ended on Friday with more deadly violence and arrests of opposition activists which have raised international concern as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina seeks a record fourth term.

A ruling Awami League party supporter was killed by opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) followers, police said. The BNP claimed 19 more of its activists had been detained ahead of Sunday’s vote.

Authorities suspended high speed 3G and 4G internet services for several hours in an effort to fight what a telecoms watchdog official called the "propaganda" fuelling unrest.

The official campaign ended after seven weeks of widespread street clashes and accusations of an official crackdown on the opposition. An opinion poll indicated Hasina is favourite to win despite the controversy.

Police said the Awami League supporter was beaten to death in the northeastern city of Sylhet late on Thursday. They had already reported the deaths of two Awami League activists since the campaign opened on November 8. The BNP says eight of its supporters have been killed in election clashes. Sylhet police chief Shah Harunur Rashid told AFP that two BNP supporters had been arrested for the latest killing. The BNP denied any involvement.

Nineteen BNP activists were arrested when police and paramilitary guards raided the election camp of a party candidate and several villages in southern Bangladesh, police and BNP officials told AFP.

Police were also investigating a suspicious fire at the headquarters of the National Unity Front opposition alliance in Dhaka on Friday. Thousands of Awami League supporters rallied in the capital as candidates made a last-minute pitch for votes.

The BNP, which says thousands of its activists have been locked up as part of a bid to rig the election, said it had been prevented from holding its final rally in Dhaka. Hasina has shrugged off accusations of using authoritarian tactics, and concentrated her final campaign on urging Bangladesh’s 104 million voters to give her a new term to boost the impoverished South Asian nation’s economic development.