DHAKA, 7 January 2007 — Bangladesh’s political parties that are boycotting a parliamentary election due later this month called a nationwide transport blockade. The call resulted in troops patrolling the streets of the capital Dhaka yesterday.
The vote is set for Jan. 22, but a multiparty alliance led by former Prime Minister Hasina Wajed has said it will not take part, accusing the interim government charged with organizing the polls of favoring her opponents. People trying to avoid the blockade scrambled onto crowded buses, trains and ferries leaving the capital.
The interim government in charge of holding a free and fair election has said it will use troops to keep the peace in the run-up to the vote.
At least 45 people have been killed and hundreds injured in clashes between supporters of immediate past Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and her rival Hasina Wajed.
Khaleda, chief of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), ended her five-year tenure as prime minister in late October and handed power to the interim government headed by President Iajuddin Ahmed.
Hasina, who heads the Awami League and the multiparty alliance, accuses Iajuddin of favoring Khaleda in the coming polls and has demanded his resignation as chief of the caretaker authority.
The alliance has called for the blockade today in a new bid to force Iajuddin and some election officials to step down.
Iajuddin has refused to quit. He is backed by the BNP and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami.
Police used loudspeakers to urge Dhaka citizens to stay calm and not to join the blockade that is expected to close down transport, business, schools and ports.
“We urge you not to attend a rally or gathering carrying any weapons including wooden sticks or iron rods that could be used to cause violence or disrupt peace,” police said. A.S.M. Shahjahan, an adviser to the previous caretaker government in 2001 and a former police chief, said the country was headed for a period of serious trouble.
Mohammad Ali, acting chief of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, urged Iajuddin to take immediate steps to resolve the “ongoing crisis politically, instead of by using force, before it is too late.”
Security forces were on alert across the country as fears of violence heightened ahead of the blockade. In a statement yesterday, the European Union said it was “deeply concerned and disappointed by recent developments relating to the parliamentary elections in Bangladesh, in particular the decision by major parties to withdraw from participating on Jan. 22.”
“A failure of the current electoral process would be a major setback for democracy in Bangladesh and for the international credibility of the country,” the EU said.
