Bangladesh: Scarcely Free Or Peaceful

Three times he had scheduled general elections, then canceled them after the opposition threatened boycotts. This time martial law Ruler Lieut. General Hossain Mohammed Ershad, who seized power in a 1982 coup, promised that the first voting in Bangladesh in seven years would take place in a "free, fair and peaceful atmosphere." It did not quite work out that way. At least twelve people were killed and 400 arrested last week amid blatant vote rigging, intimidation and violence, most of it committed by supporters of Ershad's Jatiya Party. At week's end the official count gave Jatiya 82 seats and the opposition Awami League and its coalition partners 71 seats. But the results in another 100 districts were in dispute.

Throughout the campaign, Ershad made it clear that he would brook no nonsense from his adversaries. When one opposition leader, Begum Khaleda Zia, the widow of a former President who was slain in an attempted military coup in 1981, called for an election boycott and seemed to hint that the armed forces should distance themselves from the government, Ershad slapped her under virtual house arrest. He then declared that anyone urging a boycott would go to prison for up to seven years.