Bangladesh caretaker chief hopes polls by end 2008
12 Apr 2007 15:07:31 GMT Source: Reuters
(Releads with interim govt head on election) By Nizam Ahmed DHAKA, April 12 (Reuters) - The head of Bangladesh's army-backed interim government on Thursday raised the prospect that postponed elections might not be held until the end of 2008, but lauded progress in an anti-corruption drive. "I hope the holding of elections will be possible before the end of the year 2008 and that it will be fully free and honest," Fakhruddin Ahmed said in a broadcast on state television and radio. Fakhruddin's assessment that parliamentary elections were still a long way off came as one of the country's top politicians was charged with murder, and her main rival was confined to her home in Dhaka. Former Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Hasina had decided to extend her stay in the United States indefinitely over concerns about the murder charges brought against her, party officials said on Thursday. About 160 senior politicians have been detained in a crackdown on graft launched by the military-backed interim government after it took charge on Jan. 11 and imposed a state of emergency amid widespread factional violence. "Steps have been taken so that criminals, terrorists and black money holders cannot participate in the elections and corrupt democracy," Fakhruddin said. He believed that "the general people and patriotic army of the country would continue to support his administration to attain the desired goal". Fakhruddin said the Election Commission had been made fully independent and that his government would not cling to power a single day more than required to transfer power to an elected government. HASINA ABSENT Police charged Hasina and more than 50 others with murder on Wednesday, as the army-backed interim government's clampdown on corruption in politics entered its fourth month. "We have requested our leader to delay her return in the wake of a fictitious murder charge filed against her," Abdul Jalil, general secretary of Hasina's Awami League, told Reuters. The murder charges filed on Wednesday were mostly brought against members of the Awami League, including Jalil, and several leaders of the rival Jamaat-e-Islami party. Police said the murder charges were pressed after months of investigation into two separate cases filed by the rival groups involving the killing of 10 people in Dhaka on Oct. 28. A 14-party alliance led by the Awami League accused Jamaat of starting the violence resulting in the deaths, while Jamaat, in a separate complaint to police, accused the Awamis. A court will formally hear the charges on April 22. Hasina's arch-rival, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief Begum Khaleda Zia, has been placed in virtual confinement at her Dhaka home. Khaleda ended a five-year term as prime minister last October. Newspapers reported that the government was planning to send Khaleda abroad. Party leaders declined to confirm the reports and government adviser M.A. Matin denied such a plan. Khaleda's son, Tareque Rahman, a BNP leader and her political heir apparent, has been in jail since March 7. He faces charges of extortion and abuse of power for amassing huge wealth. Hasina is on a private trip to the United States and had been due to return to Dhaka on April 23. But she brought her return forward to next week after a businessman lodged a complaint with police that she had extorted 30 million taka (over $400,000) while in power before 2001.
