Bangladesh

Bangladesh polls hailed as important step.

Article published on the 2008-08-05 Latest update 2008-08-05 13:36 TU

Women queue to vote
(Photo: Reuters)

Unofficial results from local elections in Bangladesh show the party of ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina winning almost all the positions in a poll that the party accepted was "free, fair and credible". The Awami League won all four city mayoral posts that were up for election and eight out of nine municipalities in Monday's local elections.

The Election Commission has hailed the polls as a success saying voter turnout was high with no reports of the violence which has marred previous elections.

"Everything went smoothly and there were no problems from an organisational point of view. To my mind, it was a success," said French Ambassador , Charley Causeret, who observed voting in Mymensingh, just outside the capital Dhaka.

And the Awami League has given its approval, although the rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party declared that it was "staga-managed".

"The polls were free, fair and credible," Awami League spokesperson Tofael Ahmed said.

Among the victors was mayor Badruddin Ahmed Kamran of the northeastern city of Sylhet, who had contested Monday's election from jail.

Sheikh Hasina, who ruled the country between 1996 and 2001 is one of the 150 top politicians detained by the government after it launched a nationwide crackdown on corruption a month after taking over in January 2007.

She was freed on parole in June in an apparent deal with authorities, allowing her to travel to the United States and ensuring her party's participation in the government's elections.

The government said the polls were an "important step" towards restoring democracy by the end of this year.

Although only 1.2 million of the country's 80.5 million voters were eligible to participate in Monday's vote, the election is seen as a test of the government's new high-tech voter list and reforms.