Bangladesh's main opposition party starts a 48-hour general strike ahead of Sunday's election

Bangladesh’s main opposition party has started Saturday a 48-hour general strike as the South Asian nation is gearing up to hold its next general election

DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Bangladesh’s main opposition party has started Saturday a 48-hour general strike as the South Asian nation is gearing up to hold its next general election.

The Election Commission said voting would start Sunday and last for eight hours across the country in over 42,000 ballot stations to receive the more than 119 million registered voters. Ballot boxes, among other election supplies, have been sent over in preparation for the vote, the commission said.

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by former premier Khaleda Zia, and other opposition groups are boycotting the election, saying they can't guarantee its fairness under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who is seeking to return to power for a fourth consecutive term.

The BNP has vowed to disrupt the election, calling for strikes and urging people to join the boycott. On Saturday morning, a small group of party supporters marched across Shahbagh neighborhood in the capital, Dhaka, calling on people to join the strike.

Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, a BNP joint secretary general, repeated his party's demand for Hasina to resign at the march, calling the election “skewed.”