Bangladesh's Supreme Court rules non-party caretaker system illegal

May 10, 2011, 9:06 GMT

Dhaka - Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Tuesday said the system of holding general elections under a non-party caretaker government was illegal.

But the court said two more national elections could be held under caretaker governments, which have been accused of sitting in power too long, in the interests of stability amid the country's political reality.

The non-party caretaker government system was enshrined by the 13th constitutional amendment in 1996, with the mandate to hold free and fair elections as soon as possible, and beyond the influence of the contending political parties.

In 2004, the High Court upheld the legality of the caretaker government system, against a petition filed by several lawyers. The petitioners then appealed to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.

The idea came after the 1990 fall of military dictator Hussein Muhammad Ershad, when none of the political parties trusted the others to hold a fair election, and amid criticism of the 1996 general elections, which the then opposition Awami League accused the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of rigging.

But the caretaker governments have been criticized for sitting in power too long and failing to hold prompt elections, in particular the administration put in place in 2008, which was backed by the military and ruled for nearly two years.

The government has set up a special parliamentary committee to review the constitution, and the timeframe it gives interim governments to conduct elections.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed, of the currently ruling Awami League, said last month that power should be restored to the previously elected government if the provisional government failed to hold polls within 90 days.

The Supreme Court's Tuesday ruling drew criticism for its lack of clarity.

'The verdict on one hand says the caretaker government is unconstitutional and undemocratic, and allows it to prevail for the next 10 years on the other,' the BNP's former law minister Moudud Ahmed was quoted as saying on the news website bdnews24.

'This manifests the contradiction,' he said, noting that the 'full text of the verdict is not available yet.' He also said that was his 'personal reaction' and not the line of his opposition party.

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