Bangladesh reform talks in critical phase
Source: Reuters
(Adds comments by Hasina, others) By Anis Ahmed DHAKA, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Three days before Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia is due to transfer power to an interim authority, the government and opposition leaders remain poles apart on reforms to make the next election free and fair. Khaleda is due to hand over power to the caretaker authority on Oct. 27 at the end of her five-year rule. Opposition parties warn of protests if there is no smooth transfer of power. The main bone of contention is the choice of the head of the caretaker authority to supervise the election. Khaleda's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) wants former chief justice K.M. Hasan in the post of caretaker chief, but the opposition Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina oppose him and say he has past associations with the ruling party. The other main dispute is over the opposition's demand for removal of the chief election commissioner M.A. Aziz and his deputies, who are accused of pro-BNP bias. Both sides said on Tuesday they had yet to agree on any of 31 electoral reforms that Hasina proposed to ensure fair voting in polls due in January 2007. Hopes for a settlement brightened Awami chief negotiator Abdul Jalil said he had received a telephone call from his BNP counterpart Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan proposing an alternative to Hasan and offering more talks to resolve the deadlock. But Hasina, who leads a 14-party opposition alliance, told reporters on Tuesday that Bhuiyan named Aziz as caretaker chief, instead of Hasan. "Aziz is even more controversial and unacceptable to us," Hasina said, adding that if the disputes are not resolved by Oct. 27 opposition activists from all over the country would march to Dhaka and besiege the capital. "The time is running out fast and an agreement ... must be reached by Friday," said Suranjit Sen Gupta, a senior member of the Awami League presidium. "Otherwise the country will burst into protests from the moment when Hasan or any other partisan man takes over (from Khaleda)," he said. BNP leader Khandaker Musharraf Hossain said the Awami League was trying to push the country into a "point of no return" and warned that peace-loving Bangladeshis would resist them. Earlier, the opposition alliance said they were ready to take to the streets if their demands are not met. The BNP said they would do everything necessary to keep the streets of Dhaka and other main cities under control. "Unless there is a miracle agreement between the feuding sides the country is surely heading into a period of serious confrontation, violence and anarchy," A.K.M. Shahidullah, of the political science department of Dhaka University told Reuters. The opposition also wants the armed forces be put under control of the caretaker chief during the polls. Currently the country's titular President, Iajuddin Ahmed, is constitutional head of the armed forces. "We made no headway towards agreement on any of the demands," a senior Awami leader said earlier on Tuesday. "We have not been able to break any ground yet." A BNP leader put a more positive spin on it, saying: "Everything will be clear after the Eid al-Fitr festival on Wednesday." Bangladesh is on a three-day public holiday from Tuesday following the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (Additional reporting by Nizam Ahmed)
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