PM Hasina looks to extend 10-year Bangladesh rule

Bloomberg

Bangladesh will go to the polls on December 23 amid increasingly bitter tensions between the ruling Awami League and the opposition alliance, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina looking to extend her nearly 10-year rule.
Chief Election Commissioner K.M. Nurul Huda announced the election road map despite opposition calls to defer the poll until their leader, former prime minister Khaleda Zia, is released from jail.
“I urge all political parties to end their differences and join the election to make it participatory and competitive,” Huda said in a televised speech on state-run broadcaster BTV. “Competition must not lead to animosity or violence. Parties must pay special attention to that.”
While Hasina has won international approval for giving shelter to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in neighbouring Myanmar, critics fear her increasingly authoritarian rule could threaten free and fair elections.
They complain about arrests of her critics, the enforced disappearance of opposition activists, crackdowns on protests and free speech and the country’s new Digital Security Act.