Bangladesh leader insists election will go ahead

The ruling Awami League in Bangladesh has vowed to go ahead with controversial Parliamentary elections in January, despite an opposition boycott that critics say will raise serious questions about the credibility of the newly elected legislature.

Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the prime minister, said her party's pre-assured victory in the polls was entirely the responsibility of the rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and its decision not to participate in the polls.

Of the 300 seats in the Parliament, 154 will be uncontested, with only the Awami League, and its small allies, as candidates. It means the governing party is already guaranteed victory even before a single vote has been cast.

"Of course we will score goals as the field is empty. There is no goalkeeper and thus we will go on scoring goals," Ms Wajed told members of her party at a weekend gathering.

But, she insisted, "It is the BNP's fault . . . If the party had joined the polls, candidates would not have been elected unopposed.

Ms Wajed was speaking after the EU announced it was suspending its plans for a mission to monitor the elections, after the Awami League, and BNP failed to reach agreement over mutually acceptable terms to carry out the vote.

Joy Wajed, the prime minister's influential son, angrily accused the EU delegation of siding with "terrorists", by cancelling the monitoring delegation.

The BNP, which is allied with smaller Islamist parties, has demanded the election be overseen by a neutral caretaker government, but the Awami League has repeatedly refused.

Since 1996, Bangladesh's constitution has had a provision for elections to be overseen by caretaker administrations, due to the deep distrust between the two parties, which is rooted in the profound personal enmity between the two female leaders of each.

But in 2011, Ms Hasina's government, which won a landslide victory in democratic elections in 2009, amended the constitution to remove the provision for a caretaker government.

Western governments, which fear that Bangladesh is emerging as a breeding ground for Islamist radicals, has sought to broker a compromise between the two blocs to pave the way for a credible election. But so far, the efforts have been unable to break the deadlock.

Announcing its decision not to send the election monitoring mission, the EU said the prerequisites for a credible election were not in place.

"The main political forces in Bangladesh have been unable to create the necessary conditions for transparent, inclusive and credible elections, despite many efforts, most recently under UN auspices," a spokesperson for Catherine Ashton, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy said in a statement.

Unable to reach a consensus on the terms of an election, the two parties now look set for a worsening, and increasingly violent confrontation on the streets.

The BNP has been carrying out paralysing strikes, and Human Rights Watch, the US-based watchdog, says more than 100 people have been killed, and hundreds more injured in deadly confrontations between opposition protesters and police.

However the BNP has vowed to keep up the unrest. "We won't stop until we reach our goal, which is a fair election," the BNP's vice-president, Shamsher M. Chowdhury said.

The tabular content relating to this article is not available to view. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused.

© The Financial Times Limited 2013. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation