DHAKA, Bangladesh — Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Awami League Party won one of the most violent elections in the country’s history Monday, a vote marred by street fighting, low turnout, and a boycott by the opposition that made the results a foregone conclusion.
The political gridlock plunges Bangladesh deeper into turmoil and economic stagnation and could lead to more violence in a deeply impoverished country of 160 million.
The longstanding enmity between Hasina and opposition leader Khaleda Zia, both of whom earn the honorific “begum” for Muslim women of rank, is again at the heart of the country’s latest political crisis.
Some observers say the rivalry is standing in the way of progress and compromise.
“The economy is declining, democracy is being weakened, and Bangladesh’s march toward development is faltering,” said Hassan Shahriar, a political analyst in Bangladesh. “The latest election and the opposition violence linked to it show how they could not care less about the people they say they want to serve.”
The Awami League won 232 of the 300 elected seats, the Election Commission said, far more than the 151 required to form a government. Because of the opposition boycott, about half the seats were uncontested, allowing the ruling party to rack up many victories.
Sunday’s vote was bloody: At least 18 people were killed as police fired at protesters and opposition activists torched more than 100 polling stations. Three more people were killed Monday in lingering pockets of unrest.
In a sign of international skepticism over the legitimacy of the elections, US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Monday they “do not appear to credibly express the will of the Bangladeshi people.” She urged the government and opposition parties to hold immediate dialogue on holding fresh elections as soon as possible.
A statement from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s office said he “regrets that the parties did not reach the kind of agreements which could have produced a peaceful, all-inclusive election outcome.” The statement also called for “meaningful dialogue” among the parties.
Political violence has convulsed the country in recent months as opposition activists staged attacks, strikes, and transportation blockades to press their demands. Nearly 300 people have been killed since last February.
The opposition had demanded that Hasina’s government resign so a neutral administration could oversee the polls, saying Hasina might rig the election if she stayed in office — which she denied.
The opposition, led by Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party, boycotted the election after Hasina refused to step aside. That act was the culmination of months of squabbling between the two leaders, who spoke for the first time in years in October in an acrimonious telephone call.
Asked Monday about her rivalry with Zia, Hasina said it was not personal but “absolutely ideological.”
“They have failed to stop the election. The election has been fair. I’m satisfied,” she told reporters. Voter turnout was 40 percent, according to the Election Commission. In the last election, in 2008, turnout was 87 percent.
The election raises pressure on Hasina’s government to hold talks with the opposition. An extended impasse will almost certainly continue to batter the economy as Bangladesh tries to emerge from suffocating poverty and reinvigorate its $20 billion garment industry.
The country has been ruled by Hasina or Zia — both from powerful political families — for nearly 22 years. Their power is more a reflection of South Asia’s penchant for political dynasties than of the role of women in this Muslim nation.
Hasina is the daughter of Bangladesh’s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was assassinated in 1975. And Zia is the widow of another assassinated leader, military ruler Ziaur Rahman, who was killed in 1981. The women have worked together in the past, joining forces to oust a military regime in 1990. But they became rivals in the following year’s elections and the relationship has become caustic since.
Hasina suspects Zia helped plot the military coup that toppled her father in 1975 and saw the killing of most of his family members. Hasina was forced to stay in exile in India when Zia’s husband was in power.
He was killed in another military coup months after Hasina’s return home from exile — and Zia suspects Hasina was involved in that assassination.