Bangladesh polls earlier due for December 18 stand postponed to December 29 by the election commission. But BNP one of the two parties that is headed by former Prime Minister Khaleeda Zia wants the election to be deferred till the month of January next year (2009).Though its main rival, the Awami League, insists that any delay in elections would be unfair. The country’s military -backed interim government wants to ensure that both the main parties participate in the ensuing elections.The interim government after its apparently inclusive talks with former premier Khaleeda Zia of Bangladesh Nationalist party and her arch rival Sheikh Hasina has come up with the crucial announcement about the date of election. United Nations monitoring team has arrived in Bangladesh to assess the conduct of the Nation’s parliamentary elections due in December.. Commenting on the significance of free and fair elections in Bangladesh ,UN Secretary general Ban –Ki-Moon said “It is in the world’s and your best interest to see Bangladesh achieve its full potential for democratic development through free and capable elections”.After meeting President Iajuddin Ahmad,interim leader Fakhruddin Ahmad and other political leaders he added ‘I have informed the government and the political parties that the UN has dispatched a small team of highly capable and prominent individuals who will assess the conduct of elections and report”. After democracy in Bangladesh was restored in the year 1991,the dynasties of Hasina and Zia dominated the national politics by ruling the country alternatively.The current political turmoil started when Khaleeda Zia after completing her five years term in October 2006 handed over the charge of interim government to President Iajuddin for holding the elections,but there were large scale agitations and nation –wide demonstrations against flawed voters lists as well as against biased and politicized Election Commission that was perceived as favouring Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Amidst high political tensions,the President handed over the charge of interim government to Fakruddin Ahmad and declared emergency on January 11for creating congenial atmosphere for holding free and fair elections.But the interim government, backed by army,soon embarked on a major crackdown on corruption,corrupt politicians and Islamists militants in which some 160 senior political figures were also arrested. In the earlier 2001 elections,the BNP and its allies won a two-thirds majority but during the ensuing two-year rule of the caretaker government that party has been seriously weakened.Many of its leaders including Khaleeda Zia and her two sons were accused of corruption and jailed Bangladesh’s other main party,the Awami league,was less affected by the anti-coprruption drive even though its leader Sheikh Hasina was also jailed.
Updated : Saturday, 28 Mar 2009, 11:46 [IST]
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