October 15, 2008	Wednesday	Shawwal 15, 1429

DHAKA, Oct 14: The United States has called on Bangladesh’s army-backed government to lift a state of emergency ahead of elections aimed at restoring democracy in the South Asian nation by year-end.

The US ambassador to Dhaka, James Moriarty, said the polls — planned for Dec 18 — would not be credible if the authorities kept restrictions in place.

“The forthcoming elections should be fair, neutral and credible,” Moriarty told reporters after meeting former prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Khaleda Zia late on Monday.

“Basically, an election under a state of emergency would not be as credible. That’s what I have said to the caretaker government and that’s what I said to the political parties.” “And I hope there will be compromises that make the election credible,” he said.

Bangladesh has been under a state of emergency since January 2007, when Zia’s BNP was accused by its main rival — the Awami League, led by Sheikh Hasina Wajed — of planning to rig elections.

Weeks of strikes and violent protests brought the country to a standstill, prompting the army’s intervention. Since then, the army-backed government has embarked on a major effort to clean up Bangladesh’s notoriously dysfunctional political system.

It now says it wants a re-including a ban on public political rallies — are needed to prevent violence.

Both the BNP and the Awami League are refusing to take part in the election unless the state of emergency is lifted.

“We are not going to participate in any polls if the state of emergency remains. We’ll also resist any attempt to hold the polls under a state of emergency,” BNP secretary general Khandakar Delwar Hossain said on Monday.

—AFP