DHAKA, 6 October 2005 — In an interesting turn of events in Bangladesh, the controversial former President Gen. Hussain Mohammad Ershad, yesterday announced that he will contest the general elections of 2007, sources said.
Ershad pledged to contest the elections to thwart extremists trying to turn the country into a failed state.
The former military strongman’s centrist Jatiya party will field at least 300 candidates for the 345-seat Parliament, the BSS news agency said.
At a meeting to discuss the selection of candidates, Ershad urged party members to resist those behind a series of blasts linked to extremists in the past year.
“Our image abroad will be tarnished if we, the patriotic forces ... fail to make a strong resistance,” the report quoted him as saying.
“These evil forces are taking advantage of our political differences. Unity is required in the greater interests of the country,” he added.
Two people died in the latest explosions at courthouses in south and southeastern Bangladesh on Monday.
Last month more than 400 small bombs went off almost simultaneously in almost every town and city across the country. Three people died and more than 100 were injured.
Since democracy was restored in Bangladesh in 1990 at the end of Ershad’s eight-year regime, power has alternated between the country’s two main parties, the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
