Bangladesh heading towards indefinite political instability

Bangladesh is heading towards indefinite political instability as the caretaker government (CG) is firm to hold the general elections slated on Jan. 22, 2007 despite a major political camp withdrew from the race.

The CG headed by Bangladeshi President Iajuddin Ahmed on Saturday reaffirmed that the parliamentary election would be held on the scheduled date on account of constitutional obligating, without using the last option left to avoid it.

The former opposition Awami League (AL)-led grand alliance announced on Jan. 3 that it would not join the national election slated on Jan. 22 as conducive environment for a clean and credible election was not yet created by the caretaker government.

Bangladesh introduced the caretaker government in 1996, which stipulated that a non-party caretaker government would supervise the national election within three months after it took office.

Bangladeshi President Iajuddin Ahmed took over the post of Chief Advisor of the caretaker government on Oct. 29, 2006 as five-year tenure of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led four party alliance government ran out on Oct. 27, 2006.

But AL alleged that Iajuddin is not a non-partisan man as he was chosen as president by BNP-led four party alliance government.

The AL-led grand alliance enforced a three-day blockade across the country starting from Sunday to press for a fresh election schedule after preparing a correct voter list and resignation of Iajuddin Ahmed from the post Chief Advisor (CA) of CG as he failed to show his neutrality.

AL President Sheikh Hasina last week said "we will not go to polls under him (Iajuddin Ahmed) as no polls under him will be credible and clean."

The AL-led grand alliance said that they might go for tougher agitation program including non-stop general strike and siege to resist what they said the farcical election.

Bangladesh's top business leaders blamed the CG for the current unstable situation and urged the CG to declare state of emergency if all options to resolve the political crisis fail.

Mohammad Ali, Acting President of Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), the apex body of the country's business community, after holding an emergency meeting within the body, urged President Iajuddin to declare emergency in order to bring an end to the political crisis which he said would destroy the country's economy.

"Please save the country at any cost by declaring emergency," Ali said, adding that if an emergency took place, the upcoming election would be deferred through suspension of the constitutional provision. And during the intervening period, a new election schedule would be announced crossing over the constitutional confines.

Worried about the latest political developments in Bangladesh, the European Union (EU) Saturday said that a failure of the current electoral process would be a major setback for democracy in Bangladesh and for the "internal credibility" of the country.

The EU was deeply concerned and disappointed by recent developments relating to the election, in particular the decision by the major parties to withdraw from participating on January polls.

Meanwhile, some government officials Saturday decided not to perform election duties if the election is held without participation of the major parties.

Source: Xinhua