DHAKA, Dec 8: Bangladesh’s main opposition threatened on Friday to stage more protests if reforms promised by the country’s interim government were not implemented within 24 hours.
“If our package (of demands) is not fulfilled within 24 hours we will continue our movement,” said Awami League secretary-general Abdul Jalil.
He did not specify whether the party would resume its national transport blockade, stage more street demonstrations or both.
“The caretaker government has fulfilled part of our package deal, but we want total fulfilment of the package,” he added.
Jalil said the outstanding demands included the resignation of election commissioner S. M. Zakaria.
The Awami League accuses Zakaria of being biased in favour of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which led a four-party coalition government whose mandate ran out in late October.
The party and its 13 leftist allies also want the resignation of another newly-appointed election commissioner Modabbir Hossen, charging him also with political bias.
Earlier on Friday, the election commission began working to update the voter list, one of the opposition’s main demands ahead of the January polls.
“We have started to update the voters’ list from today (Friday) and the work will continue up until next Friday,” said election commission official Abdur Rashid.
“We will remove duplicate voters, if found, and include missing voters in the new voters’ list,” he added.
The Awami League has held repeated strikes, protests and blockades this year to highlight its allegations that the voter list contained 14 million ghost voters and excluded many of its own supporters.
It has accused the outgoing government of seeking to rig the elections by appointing biased officials to key commission posts.
“More than 200,000 enumerators all over the country are taking part, going door-to-door to update the list,” Rashid said.
The election commission agreed to update the list after the country’s interim government bowed to pressure from the Awami League.—AFP
