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20204 is the year of elections, according to one estimate, just under 50% of all the people on earth living countries,

whereby December the 31st there will have been a national vote.

To mark this phenomenon, we've made three special podcasts. In this one, we're focusing on what we might call sham democracies,

countries whose governments hold elections, the opposition are not allowed to win.

But why do dictators bother holding elections if the outcomes are predetermined and, for the same

reason, why do their publics bother voting in them? Step inside the briefing room and together we'll

find out. In the first half of this programme, we're going to look at two countries where elections

are anything but free and fair. We'll start with Bangladesh, where an election was held in January.

What happened?

Naomi Hussein is Professor of Development Studies at SOAS.

Naomi Hussein, what's the size of the population and the electorate in Bangladesh?

Well, we've got 170 million people in Bangladesh.

You know, it's the eighth biggest country in the world by population.

I don't think people know that.

And I actually don't know the precise numbers of the size of the electorate,

but as you can imagine, it's huge.

You're quite a young population.

And, yes, so it's a vast potential electorate, shall we say. Now, could you give us a quick overview of what took place in the elections,

which I gather happened in January?

Who won?

So, I mean, to call it even an election, really, David, is a bit of a stretch.

...