Bangladesh elections: Deadly clashes mar vote

PM Sheikh Hasina, who has been in power since 2009, casts her ballot on Sunday

At least two people have been killed in clashes in Bangladesh as the country votes in a general election.

Some 600,000 security personnel have been deployed for the poll, with the build-up marred by violence.

The authorities ordered the shut-down of high speed internet until after the vote to prevent the spread of "rumours" that might spark unrest.


The current PM, Sheikh Hasina, is tipped to win a third straight term. Her main rival is in jail.

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Of the two people who died in the clashes, one was from the opposition while the other was an activist from Ms Hasina's Awami League (AL).

Minutes before polls opened, a BBC correspondent saw filled ballot boxes at a polling centre in the port city of Chittagong. The presiding officer declined to comment.

Only ruling party polling agents were present at that and several other polling centres in the second largest city of the country.

Why is this election important?

Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority nation of more than 160 million people and faces issues ranging from possibly devastating climate change, Islamist militancy, endemic poverty and corruption.

The country has recently been in the international spotlight as hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled there from neighbouring Myanmar.

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The lead-up to the election saw violence between rival supporters and a crackdown on dissent by a government that critics say has only grown more authoritarian during its 10 years in power.