Monday briefing: The troubled elections in Bangladesh
Bangladesh voted amid crackdowns and boycotts
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was all but guaranteed a fourth consecutive term in office as yesterday’s elections ended with a low turnout.
Security remained tight as the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party boycotted the election as unfair and called for a nationwide strike. In the days leading up to the election, violence was reported across the country – including arson that killed four people on a train in the capital Dhaka, and the torching of more than a dozen polling stations.
The opposition’s attempts to protest the vote were met with intensified crackdowns. More than 20,000 BNP members and leaders have been arrested since the party’s last major meeting in October, according to party leaders and lawyers. Millions of party members are bogged down with court appointments.
Hasina’s officials tried to play down the boycott of the BNP, but her actions in the latter part of the campaign made it clear that she was concerned about the legitimacy of the vote. She instructed her party to support fake candidates so that it did not look like the party would win uncontested.
What’s next: “There is a risk of increased violence after the polls, from both sides,” said Pierre Prakash, Asia director of the International Crisis Group. “If the BNP finds that the largely non-violent strategy it deployed in the run-up to the 2024 elections has failed, leaders may come under pressure to return to the more overt violence of the past.”
And if the BNP resorts to widespread violence, Prakash says, it will walk straight into a trap. Hasina’s party has laid the groundwork for an even broader crackdown as it pushes the narrative that the opposition is filled with “terrorists” and “murderers.”
The US has continued its efforts to curb the war in Gaza
Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, held meetings with leaders in Jordan yesterday as part of a week-long tour of the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East aimed at reducing the risk that war could spread in the region to spread.
Blinken then flew to Qatar to meet with the prime minister and emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, who said Qatar was trying to move forward with hostage talks.
Here’s the latest.
In Gaza, The Israeli military said it had dismantled Hamas’ military capabilities in the north, and was now focusing on doing the same in the central and southern areas, where it said it planned to take a different approach to destroying Hamas.
Also in Gaza, two journalists were killed. One of these was Hamza al-Dahdouh, the eldest son of Wael al-Dahdouh, a well-known Palestinian correspondent for Al Jazeera TV.
In the West Bank, An increase in violence left at least nine Palestinians dead, including a young child, an Israeli officer and a Jerusalem resident.
A Japanese steel bid has become a test for Biden
US Steel is an example of the lost manufacturing power that President Biden says his economic policies will bring back to the US. But the company last month announced plans to be acquired by Nippon Steel, a Japanese rival, in a $14.1 billion deal, putting Biden in hot water. a difficult bond.
Unions, as well as populist Democrats and Republicans, are pressuring him to block the sale, a move in line with what is perhaps his main economic goal: creating and preserving good-paying jobs in union manufacturing.
But with Biden championing Japanese cooperation on a wide range of issues — including efforts to counter Chinese production in clean energy and other emerging technologies — blocking the sale could risk a key U.S. ally gets angry.
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