Bangladesh opposition calls for strike on election weekend as premier Hasina seeks forgiveness

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s main opposition party called for general strikes on the weekend of the country’s parliamentary election, urging voters to join its boycott.

This year, ballot stations are opening amid an increasingly polarized political culture led by two powerful women; current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and opposition leader and former premier Khaleda Zia.

Campaigning stopped at 8:00 a.m. on Friday. The Election Commission announced polling would be held in 299 constituencies out of 300 across the country on Sunday. As per the law, election in one constituency was postponed after an independent candidate died of natural causes.

The Nationalist Party, headed by Zia, and other opposition parties are boycotting the election, saying there is no guarantee it will be free, fair and inclusive under Hasina’s administration.

Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, a senior joint secretary general in Zia’s party, urged people not to vote on Sunday while calling for strikes.

“The 48-hour hartal (general strike) will begin at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday and end at 6:00 a.m. on Monday,” he said Thursday night during his daily online press briefing.

On Friday morning, Rizvi led more than 100 opposition leaders and activists, holding sticks, marched in the capital’s Karwan Bazar area while chanting anti-government slogans.

“People will not accept this illegal election. People will not accept this election of looters,” Rizvi said during the march.

Also on Friday, a group of about 100 left-leaning political activists strode near Dhaka’s National Press Club, demanding the governmnet halt a “farcical election.”

The opposition had repeatedly demanded Hasina’s resignation and for a non-party caretaker government to oversee the election. The