Former PM's party ahead in Bangladesh polls

DHAKA, Bangladesh (CNN) -- An alliance led by a former prime minister appeared headed for a decisive win in Bangladesh's first national election in seven years, according to preliminary results released early Tuesday morning.

If the numbers hold when the Bangladesh Election Commission announces the final tally later in the day, the Awami League alliance (AL) will have more than the two-thirds parliamentary majority needed to implement constitutional changes.

Of the 299 seats that were contested in Monday's election, the alliance had won 245, early results showed.

Their closest rival -- the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) -- won 31 seats, with five going to other parties.

Another parliamentary seat will be contested later.

The polls were the first in the country after two years of an army-backed caretaker government. The balloting went off peacefully, except for a few skirmishes and people complaining of not finding their names on voter rolls.

The results were not altogether surprising, with pre-election voter surveys showing the Awami League grabbing most of the seats.

Political analysts say the true test of whether democracy can flourish in this Muslim-majority nation of 150 million people begins now.

Awami League head Sheikh Hasina is facing charges of bribe-taking. Her stint as prime minister in 1996 was marred by accusations of financial mismanagement and widespread corruption.

Her arch rival, the BNP's Khaleda Zia, served two terms as prime minister and was tarnished by similar accusations.

The accusations seem to have caused Zia greater damage than Hasina, said Syed Ashfaqul Haque, chief news editor of The Daily Star.

"BNP was most recently in power, and so their actions in office are fresh in people's minds," he said. "There are charges against the Awami League as well, but they are old charges and it's a fading thing."

Since the country's independence in 1971, the Awami League or the BNP has ruled Bangladesh for all but eight years.

The rivalry between the two former prime ministers runs so deep that they are known in the country as the "Battling Begums." Begum is an honorific given to women of rank in the country.

Past elections in Bangladesh have been marred by widespread instances of ballot box-stuffing and voter intimidation.

To prevent a similar outcome this time, the election commission took unprecedented steps, deploying 600,000 troops to maintain security and thousands of local and international observers to monitor the polls, and issuing voter identification cards to 81 million eligible voters.

The two major parties differed little in their election promises, with both vowing to reduce unemployment and stamp out poverty.

Zia served a term as prime minister in 1991, Hasina in 1996 and Zia once again in 2001. As one took office, the other led strikes and street protests that kept the country politically unstable and scared off foreign investors.

After the BNP's last stint in power ended in 2006, it handed over rule to a caretaker government to conduct elections -- as mandated by the country's constitution.

But the Awami League refused to recognize the neutrality of the interim government, with Hasina accusing Zia of stocking it with BNP backers.

Supporters of both sides took to the streets in months of deadly clashes.

To stem the tide of violence, a military-backed government took control in January 2007 and imposed an indefinite state of emergency. It banned political events and postponed elections until it said it could clean up the country's graft-ridden politics.

The caretaker government adopted emergency powers that allowed authorities to arrest a person without a court warrant as long as there was reasonable suspicion that he or she was connected to a crime, said the New York-based group, Human Rights Watch.

A wave of detentions followed and residents rejoiced at the drop in crime. By some estimates, more than 90,000 people were detained before some were released and others charged.

The state of emergency was lifted on December 17, leaving politicians less than two weeks to campaign.

Among those arrested in the interim were more than 150 top politicians, including Hasina -- charged with taking bribes -- and Zia -- facing charges of graft for improperly awarding a multi-million dollar government contract.

Both have dismissed the accusations as politically motivated, and both ran for parliamentary seats.

But Hasina was forced to curtail her campaign activities, relying on video-conferencing to address crowds while police investigated a recent report by CNN/IBN that a fundamentalist Muslim group had dispatched a six-member suicide squad to assassinate her.

The group, Harkat ul Jihad al Islami, is banned in Bangladesh. Hasina survived a prior attempt on her life in 2004 when extremists threw grenades at a rally, killing 20 and wounding hundreds.

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