Bangladesh will cap off a year of eventful elections in South Asia with parliamentary polls on Dec. 30. The center-left Awami League, which has spent the past decade in power under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, is seeking to win another five-year term at the head of a 12-party alliance. Arrayed against it is the center-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the country's main -- if sidelined -- opposition outfit, which is leading the Jatiya Oikya Front, an 18-member alliance. At stake are 300 of the 350 seats in the Jatiya Sangsad, the country's unicameral parliament (the remaining 50 seats are reserved for women and appointed on a proportional basis). But irrespective of the outcome, the economic goals of whoever assumes power in the capital of Dhaka will be largely the same: focus on job creation and infrastructure development, and accelerate efforts to industrialize....
