Voting will begin at 8 a.m. local time and end at 4 p.m. Vote counting will begin immediately after polls close, with initial results expected early Monday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Photo: Reuters
About 120 million Bangladeshi voters will choose from nearly 2,000 candidates for 300 directly elected parliamentary seats. There are 436 independent candidates, the most since 2001.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and some of its smaller allies boycotted the election. The BNP has asked people to stay away from the election and called for a two-day nationwide strike from Saturday.
Ms Hasina has rejected the BNP’s demands to step down and has refused to cede power to a neutral body to run the election. She has accused the opposition of fomenting anti -government protests that have rocked Dhaka since late October and left at least 14 people dead.
The Bangladesh Army has been deployed across Bangladesh to maintain peace while nearly 800,000 police, paramilitary and auxiliary police will guard polling booths on Sunday.
During her final 15 years in power, Ms Hasina, 76, was credited with turning around Bangladesh’s economy and garment industry. But critics also accused her of authoritarianism, human rights abuses, suppression of free speech and a crackdown on dissent.
Bangladesh's economy has slowed sharply since the Russia-Ukraine conflict pushed up the price of fuel and food imports, forcing the country to seek a $4.7 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund last year.
Mai Anh (according to Reuters, CNA)
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