Bangladesh opposition threatens 2013 boycott if poll rules changed

Jun 4, 2011, 14:55 GMT

Dhaka - Bangladesh's main opposition party threatened on Saturday to boycott the 2013 elections if the government changes the constitutional provision that puts an impartial non-party caretaker administration in place to oversee the poll.

'We will not take part in the elections under a partisan government, as people will never accept the scrapping of the caretaker government system,' former prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) head Khaleda Zia said.

The BNP-led opposition alliance has called a day-long general strike for Sunday to protest against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed's plan to repeal the impartial administration provision.

Bangladesh's next general election is scheduled in late 2013, when the current five-year term of Wazed's Awami League ends.

The Bangladesh Supreme Court has ruled against the constitutional provision for an impartial administration to oversee elections, but Zia termed the ruling 'contradictory, weak, illogical and controversial.'

She charged the government with trying to lead the country into crisis and urged her arch political rival Hasina to step down immediately.

A caretaker government based on a national consensus should be formed to hold mid-term elections, she said.

The Supreme Court last month ruled unconstitutional the provision on an impartial administration for the elections. It was introduced in 1996.