Political parties, intellectuals and former advisors of the
caretaker government on Wednesday dubbed the Awami League (AL)-led
alliance's boycott of Bangladesh's national election slated for
Jan. 22 as a matter of sorrow and said the country is heading
towards uncertainty.
Barrister Nazmul Huda, a senior leader of former ruling
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), said: "The alliance was aware
that the people are not with it. They will lose the election again.
Sensing their defeat in the coming election, they took the decision
not to go to the polls."
Moulana Matiur Rahman Nizami, chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, a key
partner of the BNP-led four-party alliance said the caretaker
government had taken different steps in line with the demands of
the former opposition AL-led grand alliance one after another.
Still the decision of the grand alliance was a matter of
sorrow.
He said holding the election within 90 days after the caretaker
government took over is compulsory under the country's
constitution, otherwise a constitutional crisis would be created in
the country.
Nizami said: "For constitutional compulsion, the election must
be held and the four-party alliance will join it."
There was no other alternative left to election for continuation
of the constitutional process, said Dr. Sirajul Islam, a teacher of
Dhaka University.
Billing the decision of the grand alliance as "catastrophe" for
the nation, Dr. Islam said Chief Advisor of caretaker government
Iajuddin Ahmed, who is also President of Bangladesh, will have to
take steps to come out of the catastrophe.
Expressing his frustration, Dr. Islam said the election should
be held for continuation of constitutional process. He also said
the decision will push the country towards total uncertainty.
A former advisor to the caretaker government said one party
election will not be acceptable both at home and abroad and this
would push the country towards confrontations as the BNP-led
four-party alliance will try to hold the election and the AL-led
grand alliance will try to resist it.
The AL-led alliance chief Sheikh Hasina, who also heads the AL,
announced on Wednesday that the alliance will not go to the polls
as what she said no election would be clean under Iajuddin.
She urged Iajuddin to step down and urged the caretaker
government to correct the voter list first, publish it and then
announce the election schedule.
"In the voter list AL voters were absent. Unless the caretaker
government corrects the voter list, we cannot go to the polls,"
Hasina said.
Bangladesh introduced the caretaker government system in 1996,
which stipulates that a non-party caretaker government will
supervise the national election within three months after it takes
office.
Bangladeshi President Iajuddin Ahmed took over the post of Chief
Advisor of caretaker government on Oct. 29 as five-year tenure of
BNP-led four-party alliance government ran out on Oct. 27.
But AL alleged that Iajuddin is not a non-partisan man as he was
chosen as Bangladeshi president by BNP-led four party alliance
government.
(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2007)
