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BANGLADESH: Under Emergency, Polls Suspended

Farid Ahmed

DHAKA, Jan 12 2007 (IPS) - Reacting to persistent street violence and a boycott of the Jan. 22 elections by major political parties, Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed declared a state of emergency in the country, Thursday night, suspending fundamental rights and delaying the polls.

Ahmed partly conceded to demands by an agitating 19-party coalition, led by the Awami League of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, to stand down as head of the interim ‘neutral’ government that was to conduct the elections.

The Awami League and its allies allege that Ahmed is partial to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of Begum Khaleda Zia who stepped down as prime minister in October after completing her five-year-term. The allies also accuse the Election Commission, whose officials were appointed under BNP rule, of manipulating voter lists and stuffing it with 14 million fake names.

“I have decided to resign as head of the caretaker government, to pave the way for an acceptable election,” Ahmed said in a televised address to the nation. Ahmed was elected President by the parliament that was dissolved on Oct. 27 as a BNP candidate.

Justice Fazlul Haque, a senior member of Ahmed’s interim cabinet, has been given charge of the interim government while the other nine advisers resigned on Thursday to make way for a new administration.

The President said the people expected ‘’free and fair” elections that are ‘’acceptable to all parties, at home and abroad”. To that end, he said, a ”new caretaker government will hold dialogue with all the parties, and prepare for new elections within the shortest possible time.”

The government’s principal information officer quoting the President’s office ordered suspension of news and current affairs programmes in all private television channels, senior administrators of the channels told IPS in Dhaka. A night curfew has been ordered in the capital and all metropolitan and district towns from 11:00pm to 5:00am until further orders.

Newspapers were allowed to publish but without any criticism of the government, said a senior journalist in Dhaka, asking not to be named. “It was a verbal order from the government offices and we have been asked not to publish any report, commentary, editorial, photo or cartoon criticising the government,” he said.

This is the first emergency in 16 years after the country restored the parliamentary system of democracy following the fall of the military dictatorship of Hussain Muhammad Ershad in December 1990.

Immediately after the announcement of the emergency, army and police contingents were massively deployed on the streets of the capital.

A handout of the government’s press information department said: “The president has proclaimed emergency using his authority as mentioned in article 141 of the constitution.”

According to article 141B of Bangladesh constitution, the issuance of proclamation of emergency automatically suspends the operation of the fundamental rights to freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom of thought and conscience, and of speech, freedom of profession and occupation and rights to property.

The sudden move by the President brought to a halt more than two months of street demonstrations demanding reschedule of the elections, the publication of new voters’ rolls and reconstitution of the Election Commission.

Until the proclamation of the state of emergency, the interim government headed by Ahmed said it was determined to hold the polls on Jan. 22 with support coming from the BNP and its allies, especially the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami of Bangaldesh.

But apart from the agitations led by the Awami League, there was widespread international criticism of the caretaker government’s bid to hold the ‘one-sided elections’ with some candidates even claiming walk-over victories. Officials of the United Nations and the European Union exerted pressure by making it plain that they will not support or monitor the vote.

Barely hours before the declaration of emergency, the U.N. announced the suspension of technical support for the electoral process and closed down its international coordination office for election observation in Dhaka.

“The United Nations is deeply concerned by the deteriorating situation in the country, and urges all parties to refrain from the use of violence,” a press statement issued on behalf of the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said.

In Dhaka, U.N. resident coordinator Renata Lok Dessallien said elections under the current circumstances without the participation of major political parties would not be considered credible or legitimate.

And, in a statement, EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said: “Agreement on the conditions for the elections by the election stakeholders is a prerequisite for credible and meaningful elections and these do not currently exist.”

The two top leaders in the country Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia have continuously battled for power since 1991 after the restoration of democracy following nine years of military rule. They have taken alternate turns at being prime minister.

In his address the President warned that the country would face a potential disaster if the two political alliances continue with programmes they have taken from their starkly opposite poles.