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Awami League alliance to boycott Bangladesh polls
Bangladesh News.Net
Wednesday 3rd January, 2007 (IANS)
Bangladesh's Awami League-led alliance Wednesday decided to boycott the general elections, leaving the long awaited polls scheduled to begin Jan 22 shrouded in uncertainty.
Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina made the announcement at a crowded media conference at noon, demanding the resignation of President Iajuddin Ahmed who, as chief advisor of an interim government, is tasked to conduct the polls.
She called the elections 'pre-planned', reported the Daily Star Online.
At her media briefing, Hasina was flanked by her party general secretary and the 14-party coordinator Abdul Jalil as well as two former presidents - Jatiya Party chief H.M. Ershad and Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) A.Q.M. Badrudozza Choudhury - and other front-ranking leaders.
The new development, not entirely unexpected, pointed to the possibility of large-scale violence in the run-up to the ninth general election.
Technically, a boycott should facilitate a no-contest victory of the rival four-party Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) alliance headed by Begum Khaleda Zia. However, leaders of the parties that announced the boycott have already said that they would not permit a walkover and 'resist' the elections.
The 14-party conglomerate, called 'the grand alliance' by the media since the recent inclusion of three new allies, accused Ahmed of working as 'a rubber stamp' of BNP and of working to fulfil Zia's agenda.
Hasina has been accusing Zia, who ruled for the past five years, of packing the government at all levels - judiciary, bureaucracy, the armed forces and also the Election Commission - with its supporters.
Ahmed, she told the media, had failed to right the situation and to create 'an atmosphere conducive to free and fair elections'.
The poll process began Dec 9. Dates have been shifted more than once, and the Awami alliance says a lot of time has been 'wasted' in political bickering with Ahmed and his administration and this should be compensated by the polling day being postponed.
One of her principal demands has been to update the voters' list. Media reports have alleged that hundreds of thousands of voters, especially those belonging to the religious minorities, have been excluded from the list.
The 14-party alliance comprises a large number or centrist and Left-of-centre parties including the communists. Together with Jatiya Party and LDP, they can be said to represent a majority of the political phalanx in Bangladesh.
This is Bangladesh's second poll boycott. In 1986, it was Zia's BNP that boycotted. Hasina joined the protest in what was later seen as a tactical mistake. The Jatiya Party won the elections, with Ershad having firm grip as the military ruler.
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