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Bangladesh elections on December 18 |
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Bangladesh will go to the polls on December 18. This was announced by the head of the Army-backed Interim Government, Chief Advisor Fakrudddin Ahmed, in a televised address in Dhaka on Sept. 20. He, however, refused to say whether the state of emergency would be lifted before the elections drawing criticism from main political parties. Ziaur Rahman, acting head of the Awami League, says he is disappointed with the Government’s failure to say that it would lift the emergency. The other major party, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) headed by former Prime Minister Khalida Zia, has threatened to boycott the elections if its electoral ally, Jamaat-e-Islami, is prevented from participation in the name of electoral reforms.
A probe by the Government has found that both former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Khalida Zia who were in prison on graft charges “possess no ill-gotten wealth.” The Government’s Anti-Corruption Commission is unlikely to file any case against the two women leaders of the mainstream parties because the year-long inquiry has not found any ill-gotten wealth accumulated by them.
The country has been under a state of emergency after the Army-backed Government took over on Jan. 11 last year. On the same day President Iajuddin Ahmed postponed the general election scheduled for Jan. 22 that year. The Army-backed Government tried to cleanse the polity of widespread corruption.
Over 100 former Government leaders and bureaucrats were put behind bar and cases filed against them. Sheikh Hasina and Khalida Zia were also not spared and put under house arrest. The two sons of Begum Zia known to have made huge fortunes through corruption when their mother was in power twice, were put behind bars and cases filed against them. The Government tried to reform the two parties and create a new crop of leadership which was not tainted from within these two parties sans Sheikh Hasina and Begum Zia . However, the attempts were frustrated by the loyalists of the two warring Begums. The parties threatened to boycott the elections as and when they were held unless their leaders were released and allowed to participate. The Government had no option but to free them. The excuse for their release on bail was to allow them to have medical treatment. Sheikh Hasina and the elder son of Begum Zia have already left the country for medical treatment abroad and the Awami League chief is expected to return well in time to lead her party in the poll.
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