Bangladesh president steps down


Dhaka, January 12, 2007 : The president of Bangladesh declared a state of emergency Thursday evening, suspending certain fundamental rights, imposing a night time curfew and effectively postponing elections that were scheduled to be held in less than two weeks. He then resigned as the head of the caretaker government entrusted to run the polls, though he remains chief of state.

An alliance of political parties had threatened to boycott those elections, scheduled for Jan. 22. And in the last few days, as the nation of 140 million people has sunk deeper into political violence, international backing for elections has eroded.

President Iajuddin Ahmed said in a televised address late Thursday that it would be impossible to hold elections on the scheduled date, as that would be acceptable to all parties.

In his speech, he referred specifically to the contention that the voting rolls had been stuffed with 14 million bogus names, one of the main grounds cited for the boycott.

"We need a flawless voter list to ensure that the elections are free, fair and credible," Ahmed said, according to an Associated Press account of his speech.


He had previously insisted that he could not postpone the voting, as the opposition parties have demanded, because the Constitution required an election within 90 days of the resignation of a sitting government and appointment of a caretaker government. That took place in October 2006.

The emergency declaration by the president paves the way for the army to take control of law and order throughout the country, and it imposes restrictions on the news media. Such measures have not been taken in Bangladesh since the restoration of democracy in 1991 after years of military rule.

Ahmed said in his speech that an advisory council would be appointed in the next few days. He did not give a new date for the elections, which he said the council would conduct.

The state news agency reported that Ahmed saw his resignation as "essential to keep the economy going and maintain law and order."

The emergency declaration came a few hours after the United Nations suspended its technical support for the elections, saying that the voting would not be "considered credible or legitimate." Two teams of American election observers have withdrawn in recent days, and the European Union said that its team would not be sent as planned.

The alliance of political parties led by the Awami League, the main opposition party under the former government, said this week that beyond its planned boycott of the elections, it would "resist" them, which Bengalis understood to be a veiled threat of violence.

Before the president's speech Thursday, the British Foreign Office urged compromise so that "credible, peaceful and universally accepted" elections could be held.

But the clashes between the police and political groups in recent days appeared to portend further violence before the voting.

The country's two main leaders, Sheik Hasina Wazed of the Awami League and Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, have been contending with one another for power since democracy was restored.

Each party has spent time in power, and each has turned to using parliamentary boycotts, mass demonstrations and strikes while in opposition, giving the country a reputation for tumultuous, violent politics. Zia's party was in power most recently.