2 dead as violence hit Bangladesh on eve of disputed polls

Fresh violence ahead of Bangladesh's controversial elections left two persons dead today even as the main opposition BNP enforced a 48-hour general strike aimed at scuttling the polls.
The Bangladesh National Party (BNP), which is boycotting the January 5 polls, urged voters to "fully boycott" what its chief Khaleda Zia described as a "stigmatised farce". She accused the government of keeping her under "house arrest".
An Awami League activist and a BNP worker were killed as violence erupted in parts of Bangladesh after the 18-party opposition alliance led by the BNP enforced the nationwide strike from 6 am.
Suspected activists of BNP and its fundamentalist ally Jamaat-e-Islami set on fire dozens of polling centres. TV reports said unidentified men torched makeshift polling centres, mostly housed in schools, in 35 districts including the capital since Zia issued the statement.

The strike is in addition to an indefinite blockade of roads, railways and waterways since January 1. The opposition called the strike to intensify street protests against the polls.
Without the participation of the BNP and its allies, polling would be held in only 147 of 300 constituencies, Election Commission (EC) officials said. Candidates in the other constituencies would be declared elected unopposed.

"We have wrapped up preparations to conduct the polls on Sunday...The polling will start at 8 am and continue till 4 pm," an EC spokesman told reporters.
About 3,75,000 security personnel have been deployed across Bangladesh to maintain peace and nearly 50,000 army troops are on vigil to act as a "striking force", officials said.

Paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh and Rapid Action Battalion forces are working with police to ensure that the vote passes off peacefully.
A total of 390 candidates, mostly from the Awami League and its ally Jatiya Party, are contesting from 147 seats where the number of voters is nearly 44 million.
BNP chief and former premier Zia, in a statement overnight, said: "No one at home and abroad will recognise it as election and through this the Awami League government will appear anew as an illegal structure...January 5 will be recognised as a black date."
She asked opposition activists and people to carry on the campaign against what she said was an "autocratic rule". Zia alleged that the government was keeping her under "house arrest" at her upmarket residence in Gulshan area of Dhaka.

The government has rejected this allegation, saying foreign envoys and senior BNP leaders have met Zia during the past few days.