Authorities in Bangladesh began the difficult task Monday of tallying ballots in the country's first elections in seven years, a historic vote meant to secure lasting peace from political violence in a country bedeviled by uncertainty and terrorism threats, according to dpa. Unconfirmed reports on clashes breaking out between enthusiastic supporters of rival mayoral candidates were heard, but election officials said the incidents were of too minor a nature to cause worries. The transports adviser in the caretaker government, Ghulam Qadir, said the limited local polls were held as desired by the interim regime. "We are satisfied over the way the elections were held and the respect shown by the people to limited polls," Qadir said. Development partners of the disaster prone country said the turnout was a display of mounting enthusiasm on the participation of ordinary voters many of whom truly believe that Monday's local elections will usher in a new age in largely poverty-ridden Bangladesh often marked by political turmoil. Earlier, thousands of voters queued at heavily guarded polling stations in four cities in Bangladesh to elect mayors in a landmark move to strengthen local government bodies, officials said. The local elections also cover the polls for electing mayors of nine small towns, polling station officials said. Earlier, a state of emergency was reinforced in Bangladesh at the weekend ahead of the local elections limited to four metropolitan cities and nine small towns. The mayoral elections are being held in Sylhet, Khulna, Rajshahi and Barisal cities. This is the first time in Bangladesh's volatile history that public polls were held with voters holding identity cards with photographs to check irregularities. Bangladesh is being governed by an army-backed interim authority that took over in January 2007 following widespread political violence. Around 200 top political leaders, including former prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, have been detained in an anti- corruption drive. The interim authorities have failed to contain food prices that nearly doubled over the past year. Analysts said the failure of the regime to address rising cost of living has caused simmering dissatisfaction among most of the 140 million Bangladeshis, many surviving on 1 US dollar a day. The interim authorities imposed a state of emergency on takeover canceling an election due on Jan 2007 and waged a campaign to clean up politics. The government headed by a former central bank chief Fakhruddin Ahmed has vowed to hold a free and fair election before the end of this year. However, the major political parties have asked for the immediate release of the detained former prime ministers and the lifting of emergency rule, threatening otherwise to boycott the year-end general election. The Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party are likely to be the main players in the upcoming general election slated to restore democracy to the poverty ridden country.
