Dhaka, Feb. 6 -- Sylhet's election is unfolding without spectacle. Campaigns move through tea stalls and narrow roads, marked less by slogans than by calculation. Beneath the calm, rival camps measure their ground while an undecided, largely quiet electorate watches.

As daylight breaks over tea gardens and riverbanks, the election campaign sets off without the familiar din of three-way competition. In the absence of the Awami League, the parliamentary race has narrowed -- but not necessarily simplified.

Activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) say they consider four of Sylhet district's six seats to be "relatively safe". One seat, they admit, will see a fierce fight with the Jamaat-e-Islami -- a constituency where Jamaat has ...