Polls in Bangladesh opened on Sunday for a general election that is being boycotted by the main opposition party, with the country\u2019s leader Sheikh Hasina \u2013 the world\u2019s longest serving female prime minister \u2013 set to win her fourth consecutive term. <\/p>\n
Bangladesh, a country of some 170 million people, is the first in South Asia this year to head to the polls. Around 120 million people are registered to vote. <\/p>\n
The country has seen political unrest leading up to Sunday\u2019s general election. Polling booths were set ablaze on the eve of the vote, with four people, including two children, killed in a train fire, reported Reuters. <\/p>\n
The country is also beset by economic problems, requiring a nearly $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund last year. <\/p>\n
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in power since 2009, cast her vote in the capital Dhaka. A win would mark a fifth overall victory for her Awami League-led alliance. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur country is a sovereign and independent country \u2013 maybe we\u2019re small but we have a big population,\u201d she told reporters at a press conference in Dhaka. \u201cWe have established people\u2019s democratic rights and also the right to a better life. That is our main aim\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to make sure that democracy should continue in this country,\u201d she continued, adding that \u201cwithout democracy, you cannot make any development.\u201d <\/p>\n
Overseas watchdogs have expressed concerns the country was heading towards a one-party system. <\/p>\n
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party is boycotting the elections after Hasina denied calls to resign and let a neutral caretaker government run the election. <\/p>\n\n
Polls in Bangladesh opened on Sunday for a general election that is being boycotted by the main opposition party, with the country\u2019s leader Sheikh Hasina \u2013 the world\u2019s longest serving female prime minister \u2013 set to win her fourth consecutive term. Bangladesh, a country of some 170 million people, is the first in South Asia <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13689,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}