| December 28, 2006 | Thursday | Zilhaj 06, 1427 |
BD parties hit the campaign trail
DHAKA: Bangladesh’s political parties made an abrupt shift from violent clashes to campaigning Wednesday as they unveiled their lists of candidates for January 22 polls, officials said.
NEW DELHI: Desperation and fear induced by a bloody 17-year-revolt against Indian rule in Kashmir has driven many in the region to consider suicide, according to a report by global medical agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
One-third of those surveyed in two districts in the troubled region “had had thoughts of ending his or her life” in the 30 days preceding the poll, the agency said in the survey published this month but conducted in mid-2005.
Indian security agencies say violence between troops and separatists has fallen since peace talks in 2004, but gun battles and bomb blasts across the Himalayan region continue to claim an average of four to six lives every day.
Civilians often get trapped in the crossfire or witness bombings and shootouts, MSF said in the report titled “Kashmir: Violence and Health” which interviewed 510 people in two violence-affected rural districts of Budgam and Kupwara.
Two-thirds of the respondents felt nervous, tense or worried and had physical symptoms like trembling hands and sleep disorders.
Nearly one in 10 had lost one or more members of their immediate family and a third said they had lost a member of their extended family to violence.
—Reuters
“A total of 4,147 candidates have filed their names for contesting the elections from a number of parties. And all the major parties are taking part in the elections,” election commission spokesman S.M. Asaduzzaman said.
The commission will now scrutinise the list and announce the names of the eligible candidates next week.
The country’s main opposition Awami League plans to run with allies in a “Grand Alliance”, including a party led by a former military ruler and president.
It also struck a deal with a coalition of Islamic parties, a move which drew the ire of rights groups as the agreement included a pledge not to enact any law that goes against the Koran and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which headed the outgoing four-party Islamist-allied coalition government, has kept its major allies intact but lost two key Islamic parties.
Bangladesh’s leading pollster said the Awami League-led alliance was in a “advantageous position” to win.
The party, led by former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, will contest 204 parliamentary seats out of 300 with allies fighting for the other 96.
“The parties belonging to the (Awami League-led alliance) got 55 per cent of votes in the last polls,” pollster Nazim Kamran Chowdhury said.
But Ataur Rahman, a professor of political science at Dhaka University, said the BNP alliance led by the most recent prime minister Khaleda Zia would win.
“Had the elections happened in October, the Awami League alliance would have won the polls easily. But since then it has lost ground during the last couple of months,” Rahman said. “I think BNP is still ahead.” Rahman and Chowdhury however agreed that undecided voters are a far higher percentage than in past polls and would determine the outcome.
With the polls less than one month away, the country of 144 million people turned from bitter street clashes over the composition of the election commission and caretaker government into scenes of parades and marches in support of their candidates.
Posters and banners were plastered on open spaces while news on election campaigns filled print and electronic media.
The Awami League and its allies had been pushing for a raft of electoral reforms and threatened a boycott as late as last week, alleging that the election would be rigged in favour of the BNP.—AFP