Bangladesh braces for possible government, opposition face off

Dhaka: Law enforcement agencies were ordered to step up security amid mounting tensions across Bangladesh over a possible face off between ruling Awami League and main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which planned for a massive showdown tomorrow for an amended electoral system.

The government overnight ordered a ban on rallies in two more major cities after the capital Dhaka where the opposition vowed to stage a massive protest tomorrow defying a ban while their dramatic but brief presence in parliament last evening could make little headway in resolving the impasse over the upcoming elections due ahead of January 25, 2014.

Police said they enforced a ban on street protests and rallies for an indefinite period of time in southeastern port city of Chittagong and southwestern Barisal and ordered intensified security vigil several other cities known to be opposition strongholds.

Police and elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said they mobilised extra strength in strategic locations outside Dhaka while paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) were also called out as BNP and its rightwing allies including fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami reportedly planned to put in their efforts to cut Dhaka’s communication line with rest of the country.

“Everything necessary will be done to ensure peoples life and property,” a home ministry official told newsmen.

BNP and its allies, meanwhile, joined the parliament for a brief period as the sitting of apparently the last session resumed after days of recess but walked out immediately as the ruling party members called their proposal on electoral system “unrealistic” and contrary to constitution.

The government is yet to formally respond to the opposition proposal floated by BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia earlier this week but Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina earlier yesterday called her archrival’s proposition “impractical” while holding a close door meeting with allies in her government of Grand Alliance.

“She, however, decided to directly call up Begum Zia by phone soon to invite her for dialogue over the electoral system, instead of sending letters which she said would be a time consuming process,” a leader of the alliance told Gulf News after the meeting preferring anonymity.

Zia on Monday floated a visibly complicated counter proposal on formation of a polls time non-party caretaker government rejecting Hasina’s last week’s proposal for all-party government for election oversight within the constitutional framework while her party subsequently sent a letter to Awami League general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam calling for steps for talks on the formula.

Zia suggested that both the parties would each chose five people to constitute the proposed interim government from among the 20 former advisers of the past two non-party caretaker governments which oversaw the 1996 and 2001 general elections installing respectively the Awami League and BNP to power.

The premier’s proposal did not mention who would head the poll time interim government though the government leaders said she was supposed to continue as the prime minister while Zia said a person who would be “most acceptable” to both the two sides would head the election time government instead of the incumbent premier.

But the party apparently later shifted from the proposal yesterday as the BNP lawmakers during their brief presence in parliament hinted the issue that who would head the poll time government was their main concern and if the two parties could reach a consensus on the matter, the other matters could be easily solved.

But the communications between the two parties apparently could help little to ease growing anxieties prompting foreign development partners appearance in the political scene with appeals for continued democratic process through constructive dialogues between the major parties.

The World Bank yesterday said the existing political situation exposed Bangladesh economy to a more volatile phase and forecasted a further slide from the current 5.7 percent growth rate.

“We are looking forward to an electoral process that is free, fair and credible . . . if the country fails to have a smooth transition economic growth will further go down,” World Bank country representative Johannes Zutt told a media briefing.

Awami League scrapped a non-party caretaker government system headed by the immediate past chief justice for election oversight amending the constitution with its three fourths majority in parliament two years ago in line with a Supreme Court judgment that said the arrangement was contrary to the constitution.

The opposition in subsequent months staged violent street protests leaving scores of people dead in recent months saying elections under the party government would not be fare and credible.

But Awami League insisted the caretaker system proved counter productive as it was abused and it failed to protect democracy.

It said the system rather paved ways for installation of an army backed regime to take over and rule the country for two years, proclaiming Emergency Rules during 2007-2008, sending Hasina, Zia and many leaders of their parties to jail.

The uncertainty over the fate of the upcoming elections apparently also intensified concerns among the international stakeholders with high profile global figures making visible their presence in Bangladesh’s political scene in recent weeks.