Opposition in poll-bound Bangladesh calls another shutdown

Opposition parties in Bangladesh today announced a 72-hour nationwide strike from Sunday demanding restoration of a neutral caretaker regime to oversee the next general election, after enforcing two back to back 60-hour shutdown since October 27 on the same issue.
After an hour-long meeting today, the BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance said it would observe the strike on November 10, 11 and 12.
BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said the opposition hoped the government would meet their demand of holding the election under a caretaker government within the stipulated time.
"Otherwise, we will be bound to take tougher programmes after the end of the (next) hartal," Alamgir told reporters.

This will be the third prolonged strike in two weeks.
The announcement came a day after the Election Commission said the BNP's right-wing ally Jamaat-e-Islami cannot participate in the next polls in line with a court order.

In August, a three-judge special bench of the High Court declared illegal the registration of Jamaat as a political party with the poll panel.
The BNP-led alliance called the first 60-hour shutdown from October 27 and second one from November 4 to press for the restoration of the neutral caretaker government system to oversee the next elections scheduled to be held by January 25, 2014.

A total of 26 people have died in violence linked to political turmoil since October 25.
Last month in her address to the nation, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina proposed an all-party government for election oversight. BNP chief Khaleda Zia rejected the proposal and floated a formula for creating a neutral poll-time caretaker regime.
Zia also ruled out the possibility of contesting polls if Hasina remained as head of the government.
The Awami League, which has a three-fourths majority in the outgoing parliament, scrapped the caretaker system by amending the Constitution two years ago. It acted after the Supreme Court ruled that the system was contrary to the Constitution.

The BNP has repeatedly contended that polls will be fair only under a non-party government. But the Awami League insisted that the caretaker system had proved counter- productive as it was abused.