BANGLADESH: THOUSANDS RETURN TO POLLING BOOTHS TO RECAST VOTE

(19 Jun 1996) English/Nat

Thousands of Bangladeshis have returned to the polling booths to recast their votes after clashes between rival groups and claims of voting fraud in last week's election.

Twenty seven parliamentary seats are being recontested. This could lead to a majority for the opposition, Sheikh Hasina's Awami League, in the next government.

Turning out in the their thousands, the people of Bangladesh queued for hours to recast their votes for 27 parliamentary seats that are up for grabs.

The Electoral Commission ordered the new voting amidst clashes between rival groups and alleged voting fraud during the elections held on June 12.

Many queued for hours in the Dhakar suburb, Narayangonj to cast their vote.

This may give the opposition party, Sheikh Hasina's Awami League a chance to win a majority of seats in the next government.

Observers were on hand to monitor the voting and ensure nobody attempts any acts of fraud.

And it also appears that this time there is less likely to be trouble.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The people certainly expect it to be peaceful. The people that I have spoken to both the polling agents and the parties, the government officials and also the common voters all think it should be peaceful. And security forces certainly think that they have enough people to keep it in hand."
SUPER CAPTION: Glenn Schweidzer, Foreign Election Monitoring Group

While the voters queued in long lines waiting their turn to cast their vote, the security forces kept a close eye on proceedings.

In this voting area things were calm and quiet.

Security was water tight at the polling stations, with the police and army on standby to deal with any outbreaks of violence.

Comparing the situation to last week, the superintendent of police believes that this time around it is unlikely that there will be any real trouble because more security has been drafted in.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"OK, this time it is much more secure because we have enough man power. We can deploy much more manpower, security is tight, and you know we can, it is now better supervised because that time we have the election in the national, on a massive scale. We didn't have enough manpower to deploy in the polling centres."
SUPER CAPTION: Superintendent of Police Mazin Benazir

Elections held in February were declared null and void.

The second election held last week indicated that Hasina's opposition party had won more seats than their rivals the Bangladesh Nationalist party.

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...