Bangladesh Elections Postponed; President Quits interim Govt
Pakistan Times Wire Service

DHAKA: Bangladesh's president has agreed to opposition demands to postpone general elections that were scheduled for January 22 in order to guarantee "free and fair polls" at a later date, his spokesman was quoted as saying Thursday.

President Iajuddin Ahmed also decided to quit his controversial position as head of an interim government responsible for organising the elections, and has appointed a politically independent member of the country's supreme court to the post.

"The elections will be postponed. The president wants to hold elections that are acceptable to all political parties, at home and abroad," presidential press advisor Mukhlesur Rahman Chowdhury said.

"Along with the president, nine interim cabinet members are going to resign, and supreme court justice Fazlul Haq, will take over as interim acting chief of the interim government," he said.

Ahmed, however, will continue to serve as president. The announcement came hours after Ahmed declared a state of emergency and imposed a night curfew across the impoverished, politically polarised nation. The country has been wracked by weeks of political violence.

Opposition parties, led by the left-leaning Awami League, had promised a series of non-stop protests, blockades and strikes. They were boycotting the elections, alleging the polls have been rigged in favour of the outgoing Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and have demanded a complete overhaul of the voting list.

"During the emergency period, the voter list will be corrected," the spokesman said.

"The president declared the emergency in order to hold free and fair elections," he stressed, adding that "there will be no role of the armed forces in the interim government."

The government had on Wednesday deployed some 60,000 troops across the country to stem violence.

An earlier report had said that the Bangladesh President declared a state of emergency Thursday following weeks of violent protests and threats by a political alliance to disrupt Bangladesh's general elections, his press secretary said.

President Iajuddin Ahmed said a "grave emergency exists in the country threatening public security and its economy," Press Secretary Mukhlesur Rahman Chowdhury said. The president was expected to address the nation on television and radio to explain the step.

The situation raised concern in a country with a history of military rule. Two presidents had been slain and 19 other coup attempts failed in Bangladesh since it gained independence from Pakistan in 1971.

Under the constitution, the state of emergency suspends the fundamental rights of citizens.

The country's eight private television stations were told by the information ministry to suspend news programming and relay bulletins from state-run television, according to the stations' broadcasts.

"The restriction will be effective until further order from the ministry," Khairul Alam Mukul, a news editor at the private NTV television center said.

Indefinite night curfew was imposed for the capital, Dhaka, and more than 60 other cities and towns, state-run TV reported. The curfew will remain in force each night from 11 p.m. until dawn, the station reported, quoting an announcement from the president's office.

Troops had already been deployed for election duties.

Bangladesh has recently been crippled by a series of strikes and blockades orchestrated by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her 19-party alliance that opposes the Jan. 22 election. The alliance plans a series of new strikes and blockades starting Sunday.

Hasina's alliance alleged that Ahmed's interim government, charged with holding the polls, favors her arch rival, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. The alliance demands Ahmed's resignation and a delay in the election to allow for reforms.

It has claimed that the voters' list for the election has flaws, including fake names. Other demands include the use of transparent ballot boxes and the removal of about 345 field-level election officials allegedly biased toward Zia.

Last month, the U.S.-based National Democratic Institute's Dhaka office said in a report that 10 million names on the current voting list were "errors" or duplications — representing 13 percent of the country's 93 million voters.

The United Nations and the European Union election observation mission in Bangladesh have suspended election-related activities and support for the South Asian nation, citing lack of legitimacy of the balloting.

The European Union on Thursday recalled election observers from Bangladesh while the U.N. suspended all technical support for Bangladesh's polls, including its International Coordination Office in Dhaka.

"The political crisis in Bangladesh has severely jeopardized the legitimacy of the electoral process," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Wednesday in New York.●