Bangladesh's main opposition Awami League (AL) and its 14-party allies on Tuesday demonstrated across the country against the appointment of two Election Commissioners on Monday by the government.

There are two election commissioners in the Election Commission (EC), who differ with Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) MA Aziz in all decision making matters, for which Aziz was unable to work.

Bangladesh President on Monday appointed another two election commissioners, which has drawn sharp criticism from the opposition and experts.

There were speculation for some time that to strengthen the CEC with a majority, the government might make way for appointing two election commissioners because many of CEC's decisions were opposed by the existing commissioners resulting in stalemate in the EC functions.

The AL and its allies rejected the appointments of two commissioners and announced a whole day shut down across the country on Jan. 22 and demonstrations throughout the country on Tuesday.

The 14-party alliance on Tuesday took to the streets amid police obstructions and shouted different slogans against the government and CEC. The marchers dubbed Aziz as the stooge of the four-party alliance government led by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.

The marchers also accused the government of politicizing the Election Commission by appointing two new commissioners.

Police obstructed processions in many places, including capital Dhaka, who took to the streets from the AL's headquarters in Bangalandhu Avenue, near the city center.

Similar procession were brought out across the country to protest against the appointment.

The stalemate in the EC arose as the CEC attempted to prepare a fresh voter list defying the High Court (HC) order which asked the CEC to update the existing list prepared by the AL government in 2000.

The High Court issued the order following two lawmakers of the AL filed petitions against the CEC move to prepare a fresh voter list, which the AL was opposing. The AL also wanted update of the existing voter list.

Since CEC Aziz was facing opposition in all his decisions by the two Election Commissioners, this prompted the government to appoint two new election commissioners to make CEC majority.

Following an emergency meeting of the 14-party alliance on Monday night, its leaders declared the CEC and the two newly appointed commissioners as persona non-grata and announced countrywide demonstrations on Tuesday.

Source: Xinhua