Begums battle it out for Bangladesh

Monday, December 29, 2008 at 8:12 am

After seven long years, Bangladesh will go to polls today (December 29) as the country expects a return to democracy, and facing each other again are the two battling begums – Sheikh Hasina & Khalida Zia.

For the first time in 7 years, Bangladesh is heading once again for polls today. Both Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, the candidates for the Prime Minister’s office, are charged with corruption. Voters are not entirely convinced that Bangladesh will benefit at all from this election.

The election, however, is crucial to the deeply impoverished economy and polity of Bangladesh. Politics in Bangladesh have been marked by assassinations, paralyzing protests and mismanagement. Hasina and Khaleda are both old runners in this race, each having been in the power, with the other making the country ungovernable.

Last year, Bangladesh failed in its attempts to hold elections, with deadly riots between Hasina and Khaleda supporters, with power being handed to an interim government, run by a team of technocrats backed by senior military officials. This year, however, there have been instances of scattered violence so far. Both Hasina and Zia have had long and bloody political histories ever since Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan in 1971.

( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)

Begums battle it out for Bangladesh

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