DHAKA, 19 September 2006 — At least 100,000 opposition supporters rallied in the Bangladesh capital yesterday demanding electoral reforms ahead of national elections and using strident rhetoric against the ruling coalition.

“If you don’t agree to the people’s demands we will force you out of government. Accept the reforms, that is the only option you have,” the leader of the main opposition Awami League, Hasina Wajed, told the rally.

Hasina, a former premier whose government was ousted at the polls in 2001, announced a highway and rail network blockade for tomorrow and a national strike for Thursday. “If by then the government does not agree to our demands we will call indefinite action,” she added.

Opposition leaders had hoped the rally would attract up to a million supporters but a senior police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, put the turnout at just over 100,000. There were more than 12,000 police and paramilitary forces on guard during the rally.

The rally was organized by a 14-party opposition alliance led by the Awami League to force current Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s coalition government to adopt changes to the election process before the next vote in January, said alliance spokesman Abdul Jalil.

The alliance has held a series of strikes and protests over the past 15 months to press its demands for the reforms, including firing the top election commission officials.

“The prime minister is playing with voters’ rights. We want a neutral caretaker government and no biased officials,” Hasina said.

“There are 14 million ghost votes on the electoral list we are not going to accept K.M. Hasan as the caretaker government chief. There will be no election under the chief election commissioner. Both have to go to have free and fair elections,” she added.

The rally went ahead despite a proposal by Khaleda for talks instead between her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Awami League. The opposition said it accepted the offer for talks but it had “questions about the sincerity of the proposal.” They demanded a written offer and a proposed date for the dialogue. Critics of the opposition, however, say it has sensed defeat and is determined to invalidate the election. It has repeatedly threatened to call indefinite national strikes and boycott the elections unless its demands are met.

Recent opposition-enforced strikes and protests have seen a deepening of the long-standing acrimony between the two main parties.