By Monday, (5 March) campaigning for the first general election in Bangladesh had entered its final stages.
By Monday, (5 March) campaigning for the first general election in Bangladesh had entered its final stages. Prime Minister, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League was favoured to win an overwhelming majority of the 300 seats in the single-chambered Parliament. The League had already won 11 seats which were uncontested. A low turnout of voters had been predicted for Wednesday's (7 March) poll....some estimates put it as low as 35 per cent of the 35 million voters.
The main opposition parties are the National Socialist Party led by Abdur Rab, who broke away from the Awami League student group last year, and the pro-Moscow faction of the National Awami Party.
Sheikh Mujib's election posters and his campaign symbol, bamboo-made boats, adorned Dacca streets as the polling day approached.
In 1970 ... when Bangladesh was still East Pakistan ..... Sheikh Mujib's Awami League had an overwhelming victory, winning all but two of the 169 seats contested in East Pakistan. A military crackdown followed in March 1971 and Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation after civil war and the Indo-Pakistan hostilities.
SYNOPSIS: On Monday, campaigning for Bangladesh's first general election had entered the final stages.
A prominent motif in the streets of Dacca was the bamboo boat.....the campaign symbol of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League. Posters carrying his picture were everywhere in the city in a campaign dominated by the Awami League which was expected to win the great majority of the three hundred seats in the one-chamber Parliament. The League had already won eleven seats.....uncontested.
A low turnout of voters had been forecast for Wednesday's poll.... some estimates put it as low as thirty-five per cent of the country's thirty-five million voters. Much of the campaign was an effort to draw voters to the polling stations. Opposition leaders concentrated on rising prices and alleged corruption in the ruling party.
At voting headquarters in Dacca, voting slips and ballot boxes were sent out to polling stations throughout the city. The last elections were in 1970, when Bangladesh was still East Pakistan. Then, Sheikh Mujib won all but two seats contested. A military crackdown by the Pakistan Government followed, and the nation of Bangladesh emerged from the following civil war and hostilities between Pakistan and India.