DHAKA, Bangladesh — Suspected opposition activists stabbed an elections official to death and set more than 100 polling stations on fire across Bangladesh in a bid to disrupt Sunday’s general elections.The opposition and its allies are boycotting the vote, undermining the legitimacy of the election and making it unlikely that it will stem political violence that killed at least 275 people in 2013.
Police said suspected opposition activists stabbed to death a polling official in northern Thakurgaon district, and local media reported that attackers torched more than 127 school buildings across the country in overnight attacks. The buildings were to be used as polling stations.
The voting began at 8 a.m. Sunday, but local television stations showed mostly empty polling stations, still wrapped in morning fog.
Much of the capital, Dhaka, has been cut off from the rest of the country in recent weeks, as the opposition has pressed its demands through general strikes and transportation blockades. Civilians have been caught up, with activists torching the vehicles of motorists who defy the strikes, leading to a growing sense of desperation over the political impasse.
“I want to go to vote, but I am afraid of violence,” said Hazera Begum, a teacher in Dhaka. “If the situation is normal and my neighbors go, I may go.”
The chaos could exacerbate economic woes in this deeply impoverished country of 160 million and lead to radicalization in a strategic pocket of South Asia, analysts say.
The opposition demands that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina step down and appoint a neutral caretaker administration to oversee the election. But Hasina has refused, which means the election will mainly be a contest among candidates from the ruling Awami League and its allies. Awami League candidates are unchallenged in more than half the country’s 300 parliamentary constituencies.
The squabbling between Hasina and opposition leader Khaleda Zia — the “Battling Begums” — has become a bitter sideshow. “Begum” is an honorific for Muslim women of rank; the two women have dominated Bangladeshi politics for two decades.
Zia has called on her allies and supporters to boycott the election.
Last weekend, after authorities barred Zia, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, from leaving her home for a rally, she told police that she would change the name of Gopalganj, Hasina’s home district, if she came to power. Her outburst was broadcast live on TV while sand-laden trucks were parked on roads around her home to obstruct her movement.
