Bangladesh to vote in general elections boycotted by opposition
Al Jazeera
Women make up almost half of nearly 120 million eligible voters, as PM Hasina is set to win a fourth straight term.
Bangladesh is holding general elections on Sunday, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina set to win a fourth straight term and the fifth overall for her Awami League-led alliance, despite overseeing an economy that required an international bailout last year.
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of ailing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia is boycotting the polls after Hasina denied its demand to resign and let a caretaker government run the elections.
Women make up almost half of the nearly 120 million eligible voters. First-time voters number about 15 million.
Nearly 2,000 candidates overall are vying for the 300 directly elected parliament seats, with a record high of 5.1 percent of women candidates.
There are 436 independent candidates in the race, the most since 2001. The BNP says the Awami League has propped up “dummy” candidates to try to make the election look credible, a claim the ruling party denies.
