Bangladesh vote may be delayed to accommodate Zia's party

Dhaka: Bangladesh's chief negotiator with political parties, Hossain Zillur Rahman, said yesterday the government did not want to do anything casually in its efforts to restore democracy, and needs participation of all in the process.

That could indicate the election scheduled for December 18 might be put off by a few days to attract a major party that has yet to say it will participate, analysts and officials said.

"We don't want to do anything 'casually or whimsically' for returning the country to democracy," Zillur told reporters.

"Rather we would like a coordinated effort by all [political parties] to accomplish the process and [I think] we are heading towards a good solution," he added, without elaborating.

Bangladesh's army-backed interim government has been working toward holding a parliamentary election on December 18, but only one of the country's two main parties - the Awami League - has so far agreed to take part.

Emergency rule

The other, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), threatens to stay away if the government does not end emergency rule and allow leaders convicted or arrested for alleged corruption to contest the vote.

The Awami League and BNP are headed by former prime ministers Shaikh Hasina and Begum Khalida Zia, respectively.

Both were arrested in an anti-corruption drive launched by the interim authority, which took over in January 2007 following widespread political violence and cancelled an election planned for that month.

Over the past few days Zillur, who is also an adviser (minister) in the interim authority, repeatedly said the election would be held no later than December 18 as the government had pledged to finish its tenure by end of this year.

Election Commissioner Sakhawat Hossain said on Sunday there was no way to delay the election.