Bangladesh's ex-PM expected to return home as election nears

Dhaka: Bangladesh's former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, now in the United States on medical parole, will return to Dhaka on Thursday to lead her party in next month's parliamentary election.

"She is coming home on November 6, to begin the formal campaign for the December 18 election and help restore democracy," Syed Ashraful Islam, acting general secretary of her Awami League, told reporters on Monday.

Chief Election Commissioner A.T.M. Shamsul Huda said in a national broadcast on Sunday evening that the commission would ensure the polls are free, fair and credible, and that troops would be deployed to provide security to voters.

The Awami League and its main rival, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) headed by another former prime minister, Begum Khaleda Zia, both want emergency rule to be lifted immediately.

The home affairs adviser (minister) to the interim government, retired major-general Abdul Matin, said on Monday they would "relax the emergency allowing parties full freedom of campaigning and conducting related election activities".

Awami leaders said Hasina would take part in the election, but the BNP is yet to confirm its participation or whether
Khaleda will be in the race.

The two women rotated as prime minister of the impoverished south Asian country over 15 years until October 2006, when Khaleda's second five-year term ended.

Hasina and Khaleda have been arrested for alleged corruption, along with dozens of their former ministers and close relatives, but were released recently on bail.