Islamists take a hard beating

Dhaka: The rightwing Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), the key ally of former prime minister Khalida Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led four-party alliance, appeared to have borne the brunt of voter anger with the defeat of all its stalwarts.

The JI, which opposed Bangladesh's 1971 independence siding with the Pakistani troops, only won two seats in the 300-seat parliament compared to 20 in the last house while its chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid conceded defeat in their respective constituencies.

"The anti-liberation forces have been defeated once again, this time through peoples' verdict," the Daily Star commented in a report headlined "Jamaat in jeopardy". "While it is a sweet revenge for Bangladeshis against the war criminals, the verdict will make stronger the demand for their trial."

Most political analysts attributed JI's debacle on the intensified campaign for the trial of 1971 war criminals" launched by the Sector Commanders Forum, a grouping of living veterans of the Liberation War, crucially backed by India, as the country celebrated its 37th victory anniversary ahead of the polls on December 16.

Stunning victory

Bangladesh's landmark general elections overnight brought a stunning victory for former prime minister Shaikh Hasina's Awami League-led grand alliance with two-thirds majority to form the next government after nearly two years of state of emergency.

The Awami League-led grand alliance swept the polls as the election commission officials said over 80 per cent of voters exercised their franchise to elect the country's ninth parliament after seven years under a neutral caretaker government, crucially backed by the armed forces.

"Our leader has called for change and the people have responded," Awami League spokesman Nuh Alam Lenin said after Monday's elections as several newspapers attributed the victory on the "change of charter" of the party manifesto to woo particularly the young voters, 33 per cent of them voting for the first time.

Foreign observers and independent poll monitor groups widely appreciated the voting, held for the first time under a digital electoral roll with photographs, but Zia hinted about "election engineering and rigging" as her party said it lodged complaints with the election against "irregularities" in 220 polling centre.

Hasina, Zia and former president HM Ershad of Jatiya Party, a key ally of Awami League-led grand alliance, won the polls from three constituencies each but most stalwarts of the past four-party government, including several dozen of influential former ministers lost the polls.

Zia as well as Hasina yesterday expressed their confidence to win the people's verdict with both showing "V" signals after casting votes in separate polling centres in Dhaka and until 1 in the afternoon yesterday the BNP chief said she was satisfied with the polling process as "things are alright so far".