US vote: Some Bangladeshis switch party, others still undecided

Hillary Clinton's and Donald Trump's campaigns are pulling out the big guns with just a day left for the election.

In a last-ditch effort to gain voters with election day just hours away, Clinton was joined by influential celebrities such as Beyoncé and Jay-Z in Cleveland last Friday as she continues to appeal to young people while Trump attacked her, calling her an unfit military leader using the information the FBI disclosed about her emails.

However, the latest from the FBI clearing her of any wrongdoing with the emails, her prospects look brighter. On Sunday, FBI Director James Comey informed Congress that his agency did not find any reasons for charges against the democratic presidential nominee for her use of a private email server.

Meanwhile, Democratic and Republican volunteers are still going door to door, traveling from state to state, asking Americans to cast their candidates name in the ballot box on November 8.

In a cramped phone shop at Jackson Heights, Shah Chisty, a Bangladeshi business owner and Democrat turned Republican, campaigns by talking to the customers that walk into his shop.

"When people here are coming in, I explain to them the reason I am going to vote for Trump. I say Trump is a nice guy, even though he knows nothing about politics, he has a good idea by creating more industries and jobs, which is something we need," Chisty says with enthusiasm.

The 30-year-old continues to talk about his change in political views while fiddling with a phone handed to him by a customer, "Hillary is a nice lady, but a man and woman are totally different. Trump has a manly aura, his presence is commanding, and this is very important.

"Hillary looks like a mother or grandmother and in America's current situation I think Trump is better."

Another business owner shows his support for Hillary Clinton. The 54-year-old Badsha emphatically states, "I personally campaign and sometimes I go to rallies. There was a big rally in Jamaica and sometimes in the Bronx. Hillary supports Asia and I like her personality and my family likes her too."

People from all walks of life participate in campaigning for their favourite candidates. Reza, a Bangladeshi taxi driver in his 30s, shows support for Hillary, he explains, by attending "a rally for her. He even raised funds for her campaign, he says.

"In Jackson Heights, we gave a big donation to Hillary. Around Friday night or the weekend, a lot of people come here usually to shop, and then we talk to them about Hillary."

With his arms crossed, Reza recounts his experience at the rally for Clinton, "It was good, I actually liked it. Our big brothers and uncles were with us so we got together to work for our candidate. There were around 40 to 50 Bangladeshis and they might switch their vote.

They are mostly republican but they are voting for Hillary for the first time."

Reza's friend Rakib, another taxi driver, stood next to him, chiming in every now and then to talk about how he has campaigned for Bernie Sanders in the past though he is currently voting for Trump.

"There were few people because a lot of people in New York support Hillary. His rally wasn't much" he replied unenthused and continued "there were a couple of Bangladeshis there but a lot of Indian supporters."

However, not everyone is participating in the campaigns. A Bangladeshi woman looks after her family's boutique, Shriti Fashion. Although she is voting in the 2016 election, she is not campaigning.

"In our family, women aren't encouraged to engage in campaigning that requires them to go outside. We can watch the television and read the news but we don't go outside and do these things," she reasons.

Mehnaz Chowdhury, a pension plan consultant in her late 20's has not campaigned as well. Neither a democrat nor republican, she replies in a flat tone, "I haven't volunteered for campaigning because I think the election is rigged so there's no point."

Indifference to the election was also evident among some college students. A student attending the City College of New York requesting anonymity also showed indifference to campaigning. "I don't really like any of the candidates that we have so far," she began earnestly, "Trump is a racist and Clinton is a war hawk and even though Trump is the worse of the two, I don't feel comfortable supporting someone I don't like just because they are the lesser of two evils."

While there are Bangladeshi-Americans avidly persuading voters to support their candidates, others are staying away from participating meaningfully because of family values and some are jaded and cynical about America's voting system, opting to not take part in campaigning at all.