Voting begins in Bangladesh general election
Dhaka, Dec 30 : Voting began in Bangladesh on Sunday amid tight security following a weeks-long campaign that was marred by violence and allegations of a government crackdown on opposition activists.
Tens of thousands of people, including women, stood in long queues outside the polling booths as the voting started at 8 am (local time).
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was the first voter at the Dhaka City College centre in the capital where her lawyer nephew and party candidate Fazle Nur Taposh was a contender.
"People will cast their vote for Awami League to ensure the win of pro-Liberation forces," Hasina said.
While Hasina is seeking re-election for a fourth term as the prime minister, her rival ex-premier Khalida Zia, who is reportedly partially paralysed, faces an uncertain future in a Dhaka jail.
Over 600,000 security personnel including several thousand soldiers and paramilitary border guards have been deployed across the country to help conduct the election in which 10.41 crore people are eligible to vote.
Security agencies have been asked to keep an extra vigil on religious minority communities as media reports said at least three Hindu households were set on fire by miscreants between December 16 and 26.
Bangladesh's telecoms regulator also ordered the country's mobile operators to shut down 3G and 4G services until midnight on Sunday "to prevent the spread of rumours" that could trigger unrest during the election, the 11th since Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan in 1971.
According to the Election Commission, 1,848 candidates are contesting for 299 out of 300 Parliament seats. The polls are being held at 40,183 polling stations.
Thirteen people have been killed and thousands injured in clashes between supporters of Hasina's ruling Awami League and activists of main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of Zia in pre-poll violence.
Hasina, who is seeking to return to power for a third consecutive time, on Saturday expressed fears that the opposition could boycott polls in the middle of voting as part of a "political trick" to evade a "humiliating defeat".
"I want to caution all about the character of (main opposition) BNP...they may say in the middle (of the elections) that we are boycotting the polls," she said.
"In that case (opposition boycott) I will ask our candidates and other contenders to continue polls until the voting is ended," 71-year-old Hasina said.
Her comments came as the BNP is contesting the polls in a state of disarray in the absence of 73-year-old Zia and her fugitive son Tarique Rahman who is the acting party chief.
Zia, serving a 10-year prison term on graft charges, has been barred from contesting the polls while Rahman is living in London ostensibly to evade the law as a court has sentenced him to life imprisonment for masterminding a grenade attack on a rally in 2004 that killed 24 Awami League leaders and activists.
The BNP has stayed out of parliament since 2014 when it boycotted the last election over its demands for a poll-time non-party government.
It has returned to parliamentary politics as part of a new alliance - National Unity Front (NUF) - that was cobbled together three months ago with eminent lawyer Kamal Hossain as its convener.
Reacting to Hasina's remarks, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said "There is no dispute in our party about taking part in the polls".
"But what we see, there is no festive mood anywhere and rather a sense of fright is prevailing across the country due to government intimidation," he said.
The Election Commission last week also allowed hardline Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, a crucial ally of BNP, to contest the election, two months after it scrapped the fundamentalist party's registration.
BNP earlier accused the election commission of being biased during the poll campaign, a charge rejected by Chief Election Commissioner Nurul Huda.
Huda acknowledged a media report about arrests of some polling agents of BNP candidates and called such action "unwanted".
"Unless someone is wanted under certain case, police must not arrest anyone...maintain utmost neutrality in discharging your duties," he said.
"No member of law enforcement will arrest or harass polling agents of any candidate unless there are specific allegations against them," he said in a directive which he issued in a pre-poll press conference in Dhaka.
The opposition parties have alleged that thousands of their leaders and activists have been arrested.
The CEC's comments came as BNP expressed doubts about credibility of Sunday's election alleging their supporters were intimidated and arrested while their agents too were being harassed to keep them away from polling centres.
Later BNP's Alamgir said "Now we've no expectation over the election. This election has become a complete mockery....the state, the government and the Election Commission are working together to turn it into a mockery. There's no question of win or defeat since it is not an election at all as a particular party is trying to snatch election victory by force and using the state machinery".
Alamgir, however, asked his party candidates to stay in the race until the voting ended while NUF convenor Hossain urged voters to "restore democracy" and exercise their franchise.
Army Chief General Aziz Ahmed urged voters to exercise their franchise without any fear saying more military personnel would be called out if required.
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Rupee settles 1 paisa higher to close at 94.15 against US dollar
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee settled with gains of just one paisa to close at 94.15 against the US dollar on Monday, as rising global uncertainty, escalating tensions in West Asia and soaring crude oil prices weighed on investor sentiments.
Forex traders said the INR/USD pair pared its initial losses, but the overall bias remains negative as FII sell-off and elevated crude oil prices restricted the gains for the local unit.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 94.25 against the US dollar, and touched an intraday high of 94.11 and a low of 94.28 against the greenback during the day.
At the end of Monday's trading session, the rupee was quoted at 94.15, registering a gain of just 1 paisa over its previous close.
On Friday, the rupee extended its losing streak for the fifth day in a row, depreciating 15 paise to close at 94.16 against the US dollar.
"The rupee snapped a five-session losing streak, rebounding in tandem with a rally across regional currencies. However, the mood remains apprehensive as the market braces for a potential RBI intervention around 94.30 and higher crude oil prices," said Dilip Parmar – Senior Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.
On the charts, the USDINR pair has reclaimed its upward momentum, carving out a classic bullish structure of higher highs and lows on the daily time frame, he said, adding that for the coming sessions, 93.80 serves as a support, with 94.40 acting as the primary hurdle.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was down 0.21 per cent at 98.32.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading higher by 2.36 per cent at USD 107.82 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, Sensex jumped 639.42 points to settle at 77,303.63, while the Nifty surged 194.75 points to 24,092.70.
Foreign Institutional Investors offloaded equities worth Rs 1,151.48 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.
Meanwhile, India's forex reserves jumped by USD 2.362 billion to USD 703.308 billion during the week ended April 17, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday.
In the previous reporting week, the forex kitty had increased by USD 3.825 billion to USD 700.946 billion.
