DHAKA, 7 December 2006 — Bangladesh’s main opposition yesterday threatened to stage fresh protests with up to two million supporters from Sunday unless its demands for electoral reforms ahead of January elections were met.
“Unless our demands are met within a few days we will hold an indefinite siege of the election commission office and the presidential palace and bring two million people from across the country to enforce the blockade,” said Awami League official Ashim Kumar Ukil.
“We will completely isolate the offices from the rest of the city and continue until our demands are met,” he added.
The main opposition Awami League and its 13 leftist allies suspended the latest indefinite national transport blockade on Monday.
It lifted the crippling protest after the interim government, in place to hold free and fair elections, requested the country’s controversial election commission to make a number of reforms in line with opposition demands.
The election commission, accused by the opposition of being biased in favor of the outgoing government led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), said Tuesday it had agreed to review the voters’ list. The opposition says the list is flawed and contains 14 million ghost voters.
The alliance of opposition parties also wants the date of the election, fixed for Jan. 21, to be rescheduled. It had previously also demanded that President Iajuddin Ahmed resign as head of the interim administration, accusing him of being insufficiently neutral to carry out his duties.
Since the start of the year, Bangladesh has been repeatedly paralyzed by opposition strikes, blockades and protest to highlight its demands. The opposition says the reforms are necessary to prevent the cards being stacked in favor of the BNP, which led a four-party coalition government until Oct. 27.
The party ousted the Awami League from power with a landslide victory at the last general election in October 2001.
With just six weeks to go before January’s scheduled polls, the country is torn between those who want sweeping changes to the election and its organizers, and those who want a status quo to remain.
Thousands of activists of the 14-party alliance led by Awami League gathered around the election commission headquarters in Dhaka yesterday to press for change.
Supporters of BNP rallied to insist the election goes ahead under the current administration and following a schedule already set.
Presidential adviser Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury warned yesterday that time was running out and political rivals had to reach a consensus soon. “Any decision, however big or good it may be, will just be useless if it comes too late,” he told reporters. “The election needs to be held timely and all of us should try to make it free and credible.”
