Opposition leader Kamal Hossain said a few hours after voting ended that about 100 candidates from the alliance had withdrawn from their races during the day. In the run-up to the election, activists from both the ruling party and the opposition complained of attacks on supporters and candidates. Nurul Huda, Bangladesh’s chief election commissioner, said as he cast his vote in the capital, Dhaka. Hasina’s main rival is former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, the leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, who a court deemed ineligible to run for office because she is in prison for corruption. On Sunday, some 104 million people in the Muslim-majority country were eligible to vote, including many young, first-time voters.

Source: Washington Post December 30, 2018 02:22 UTC