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Situation in Bangladesh Deteriorating Towards Military Dictatorship2006-12-11 Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed ordered on Saturday the deployment of the army across the country to strengthen law and order and 'ensure peaceful elections' next month.The home (interior) ministry said the civil administration had been asked to prepare for the deployment and keep magistrates ready to help troops on duty. It said all gatherings and processions had been banned around the presidential palace with immediate effect ahead of the election which is due on Jan. 23. At least 44 people have been killed and hundreds injured in clashes between rival political activists since late October. A 15-party alliance led by Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League has threatened to launch larger protests including a siege of the presidential palace if the president failed to remove election officials it accuses of a bias towards its rivals. Begum Khaleda Zia, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), ended her five-year tenure as prime minister late in October, handing power to an interim government, headed by the president, to oversee the polls. Khaleda told her followers on Saturday that the Awami League was trying to "foil the election in one pretext or the other as it knows people will not vote for it because of its past misdeeds and for provoking violence". Senior Awami leader Obaidul Kabir said the president was "acting as per Khaleda's instructions to bring her back to power". Abdul Jalil, general secretary of the Awami League, said: "... the caretaker authority must rid the election commission of biased and controversial officials to make sure that the people's opinion is truly reflected in the election results." POLITICAL FOES Bangladesh's past elections have been marred by violence and charges of rigging and voter intimidation. Khaleda and Hasina have alternated as premiers of impoverished Bangladesh for the last 15 years after they toppled military ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad after nearly nine years of power through a people's revolt in December 1990. But they have since been political foes who refuse to even speak to each other. Bangladesh's election commission on Friday announced new poll schedules, shifting the voting date to Jan. 23 from Jan. 21, ignoring calls by Hasina's alliance to delay it further. Bangladesh's constitution says new elections must be held within three months after the expiry of the previous government's tenure. Presidential advisers shuttling between the rival camps trying to end the stalemate over the poll officials, said on Saturday they hoped to succeed by Sunday. BNP secretary-general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan said trying to remove the election commissioners against their will was unconstitutional. He asked the president and the caretaker authority "not to bow to pressure or try to implement the agenda of a party (Awami League". "If you do, BNP and its allies will resist it." Sponsored Links
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