Bangladesh's main political parties Monday welcomed an overnight announcement fixing October 1 as the date for general elections, as political violence left two more people dead.
Chief Election Commissioner M. Abu Syed announced the polling date in a nationwide television and radio broadcast late Sunday.
The former ruling Awami League, headed by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, and its rival the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by Khaleda Zia, both said the polling date was acceptable.
"The Awami League will take part in the October 1 elections, but the caretaker government did not accept our proposal (for polls in September) and we think the time is insufficient to settle possible post-poll problems or formalities," Shah Kibria, former finance minister and the party's election coordinator told a press conference.
Kibria alleged that police and paramilitary forces were randomly harassing and arresting Awami League activists and urged the government to stop such a "targeted campaign."
He said it was "not a good sign" for holding free and fair elections.
The BNP's secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan told reporters: "We have no objection as we wanted elections in October."
Zia had already made public her wish for elections to take place in October.
Meanwhile two Awami League activists became the latest victims of the continuing political violence when they were kidnapped and shot dead by rivals from the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party in the Fatikchari area near the southeastern city of Chittagong, police told AFP.
Clashes between supporters of the BNP and the Awami League have left around 50 people dead since mid-July and more violence is feared in the run-up to the polls.
Senior police officers rushed to the area, where tensions are running high following the killings.
As he announced the poll date, Syed appealed to the public to ensure the elections were peaceful, free and fair.
Along with police and other security forces, the military will also be deployed on election day.
A caretaker government headed by former chief justice Latifur Rahman took over from Sheikh Hasina on July 15 with a mandate to organise free elections for the 300-seat parliament by October 11.
Rahman warned officials they will be sacked if they neglect their election duties,
"Provisions have been made for forced retirement, removal and sacking of any official found negligent to election duty or wilfully failing to and refusing to carry out orders or instruction by the election commission or returning officer. None would be spared if found negligent," Rahman said late Sunday.
"I have advised the election commission to enforce the law strictly and appropriately," he added.
In previous elections, sections of the bureaucracy have been accused by politicians of favouring particular political parties.
Rahman has come under fire from Sheikh Hasina and other political leaders for reshuffling more than 1,200 civil and police officials, although the BNP has welcomed it.
More than 200 Dhaka University teachers expressed their concern Monday over the government's "undesirable and controversial activities," saying questions had been raised about the government's "neutrality" because of the massive reshuffles.
Rahman said his government was "definitely neutral and it would be improper to question its neutrality."
The next parliament will be the eighth since Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan in 1971.
The last legislature was the first in the country's history to complete its full five-year term. The tenures of others were cut short by political upheavals.
Caretaker governments were written into the constitution in 1996 -- DHAKA (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
