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BANGLADESH: Bracing for Renewed Poll Violence

Farid Ahmed

DHAKA, Nov 12 2006 (IPS) - Bangladesh braced for renewed street violence Sunday, after a 14-party opposition coalition enforced an indefinite blockade of road, rail and water transport to press for the sacking of the chief election commissioner.

On Saturday, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, chief of the Awami League main opposition party, vowed to keep the blockade going until Chief Election Commissioner M.A. Aziz and his two deputies were removed from the commission that will supervise general elections scheduled in January.

Defying a ban on rallies and demonstrations in the national capital, thousands of supporters of the Awami League and its coalition partners were seen streaming in to back the ‘peaceful blockade’ of the capital.

Wajed, a former prime minister, had set Sunday as the deadline by which President Iajuddin Ahmed, who leads an interim caretaker administration that will run the country until a new government is formed, could prove his neutrality by removing Aziz and restructuring the election commission.

“(President)) Dr Iajuddin Ahmed has forgotten his oath (of neutrality) as chief advisor and lowered himself to the level of a partisan president,” she said at a press conference on Saturday.

Ahmed had appointed himself head of the interim government on Oct. 29 after the Awami League and the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) of outgoing prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia could not agree on a non-partisan candidate and street violence between the arch rivals and their coalition partners erupted leaving more than 30 people dead.

Bangladesh’s constitution requires that a neutral, interim caretaker government take over the administration and be responsible for holding general elections within 90 days of an elected government ending its tenure.

As Ahmed was elected president by the national parliament as a nominee of the BNP, the Awami League said he must prove his neutrality by reconstituting the election commission. But Khaleda Zia, who ended her five-year term on Oct. 28, has warned against removal of Aziz from the commission, saying it would be unconstitutional.

The Awami League and its allies have said they will not take part in any election that is supervised by Aziz and his deputies, charging that they were biased in favour of the BNP and its Islamist allies, including the Jamaat-e-Islami, that shared power over the past five years.

“We can’t expect a free and fair election under the supervision of a chief election commissioner biased towards the BNP,” Awami League general secretary M.A. Jalil told IPS in an interview. Charges levelled by the Awami League against Aziz include the drawing up of false electoral rolls designed to favour the BNP.

The issue now threatens to revive the street confrontations. Wajed has vowed to keep the country paralysed by enforcing the blockades, while Khaleda Zia has urged her party workers to resist the Awami League’s plans.

On Thursday, thousands of shouting protesters from the Awami League marched through the streets of Dhaka to lay siege to the Election Commission Secretariat, but a huge contingent of police and paramilitary troops had cordoned off the area.

The chief of the Liberal Democratic Party, Oli Ahmed, who resigned from the BNP after accusing Khaleda Zia of failing to take action against corrupt politicians, also fears that the elections will not be free and fair under the supervision of Aziz.

Ahmed is understood to have indirectly requested Aziz to stand down, but the former Supreme Court judge refused to oblige.

On her part, Zia has levelled accusation of bias against members of the President’s team of advisers after they visited Wajed last week. ”We have observed the activities of the caretaker government in the last 10 days. There are a couple of advisors who are working for a particular party. We urge them to stop these partisan activities,” she said at a rally.

Well-known economist Muhammad Yunus is among many who have urged the President to run his interim government with firm determination to deliver a credible general election. “I urge you (the President) to emerge stronger, and take a strong approach towards the opposing political camps,” Yunus told the President as he was being accorded a special reception last week to celebrate his winning the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006.

“You must be tough on everyone. Don’t be soft on someone and tough on others,” Yunus said emphasising the need for strict neutrality in Bangladesh’ highly charged and polarised political atmosphere “If something like that happens, darkness will grip the nation,” he warned.

Fearing violence, the United States administration on Wednesday reminded its citizens in Bangladesh to remain vigilant because of the deteriorating security situation in the country.

With fears growing of widespread violence ahead of the elections, Ahmed warned of tough measures in a statement on Saturday, following consultations with police and military officials – leading to speculation that the army might be called in, at least to control law and order.

“After so many years of military rule, we’ve achieved democracy and the parties should not do anything to lose it,” said Shahidul Islam, a Dhaka University student.

Bangladesh broke away from a larger Pakistan and became independent in 1971 after a bloody nine-month war against the Pakistani army. The country saw three coups and military governments for 15 years until 1990 when the last military dictator H.M. Ershad was ousted by a violent peoples’ protest.