DHAKA: Bangladesh’s Election Commission extended a deadline yesterday for registration of political parties by five days in a further effort to woo all major parties to take part in the parliamentary election due on Dec. 18.
The commission will receive applications from political parties seeking to contest the election until Oct. 20, instead of a previously set deadline of Oct. 15, a commission official said.
Extension of the application date was requested by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia and its main ally the Jamaat-e-Islami (party).
The extension came a day before both the parties were due to hold talks separately with the chief of the country’s army-backed interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, to discuss election preparations and related reforms.
The Dec. 18 election will cap the interim government’s nearly two years in power and move the country back toward democracy. The government has vowed to hold a free and fair election with participation by all major parties to establish a credible, workable and stable democracy.
BNP’s main rival, the Awami League, led by another former Prime Minister, Hasina Wajed, earlier collected registration forms from the commission and said it would take part in the coming vote.
The BNP says a decision to participate in the polls would depend on the outcome of tomorrow’s talks, where it would urge an end to emergency rules imposed in January last year and unconditional freedom for Khaleda and her party colleagues.
The Awami League also wants Hasina’s “complete freedom” and charges against her dropped. The two former prime ministers face trial over charges of alleged corruption.
Hasina was paroled in June to receive medical treatment in the United States, while Khaleda was released on bail in September, also on health grounds. They spent a year each behind the bars.
“We have extended the deadline to hold a credible election with the participation of all political parties,” Chief Election Commissioner A.T.M. Shamsul Huda told reporters. Hasina is due to return late this week, and the High Court last week asked the government not to send her back to prison or arrest her on return on possible fresh charges.
The Anti-Corruption Commission last week filed a fresh graft charge against Khaleda over a coal mine exploration deal while she was in power between 2001-06, and a court asked her to appear before it on Thursday to hear the charges.
The BNP and its allies on Sunday warned the government that it might resist efforts to hold a “controlled” election under the current state of emergency.
“We will not allow polls with our hands tied,” said Khandaker Delwar Hossain, the party’s secretary-general, before a gathering of several thousands of supporters at Dhaka’s Institute of Engineers.
The party, which held power before the current administration took power in 2007, wants to press a five-point list of demands, which it says will facilitate a general election scheduled for December 18, 2008.
Alliance supporters rallied across Bangladesh, demanding the government withdraw all cases against Khaleda and other party leaders. Party supporters also sought a cancellation of the latest electoral reforms, which require registration of political parties with the Bangladesh Election Commission.
