BANGLADESH: Demonstrators demanding dismissal of election officials surround administration building in Dhaka

Political activists seeking the removal of election officials surrounded Bangladesh's main administrative secretariat in Dhaka on Wednesday (November 29), as a U.N. envoy flew in to assess the situation ahead of elections in January. Activists of a multi-party alliance led by Sheikh Hasina, chief of the Awami League, choked streets leading to the secretariat. Violence has swept the impoverished South Asian country in the run up to the election set for January 21. Craig Jenness, director of the U.N. Electoral Assistance Division, arrived in Dhaka on Wednesday for a three-day visit to assess the situation before the poll and then prepare a report for Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Officials said Jenness would meet President Iajuddin Ahmed, who also heads a caretaker administration in charge of holding the election, former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, Sheikh Hasina, foreign secretary M. Hemayetuddin and civil society leaders. Annan has appealed to Bangladeshi leaders to work together to ensure free and fair elections but political analysts say past experiences showed such efforts usually fail in Bangladesh. At least 40 people have been killed and hundreds injured in clashes between political rivals since late October, when Khaleda ended her five-year term as prime minister and handed power to the interim government. The 14-party alliance led by Hasina wants to remove all key officials at the commission to ensure free and fair voting. Hasina and her allies accuse the commissioners of being biased towards Khaleda's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its ally the Jamaat-e-Islami party. The alliance has enforced two crippling countrywide transport blockades in the past two weeks, closing everything from schools to ports. Another shutdown looms as Hasina has asked the president to step down as head of the interim government by Saturday (December 2), accusing him of failing to prove his neutrality.

ITN Source | November 29, 2006

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