By IANS
Dhaka : Political parties in Bangladesh Monday reopened their offices ending their nine-month hibernation – but the caretaker government only allowed them to conduct their activities indoors.
The caretaker government relented Sunday evening, in time for a dialogue on electoral reforms that the parties would start with the Election Commission from Wednesday.
The relaxation of the blanket ban on political activities, announced by Chief Advisor Fakhruddin Ahmed through a TV address Sunday evening, was welcomed by all parties.
Ahmed also indicated that he might conduct “free and fair” elections earlier than the December 2008 deadline, provided preparations like updating of the electoral rolls and the issue of photo identity cards were completed before time.
It was a sop to the parties clamouring for early polls – emphasised also by donor nations including the US, Britain, the European Union as well as international agencies – but Ahmed did not indicate a change in the schedule, political analysts noted.
Welcoming the government’s decision to relax curbs on indoor politics, leaders of different political parties lauded Ahmed’s address.
They said the step would have a positive impact on the Election Commission’s talks on reforms and implementation of the roadmap to polls.
A former president of the country and Jatiya Party (JP) chairperson H.M. Ershad said Ahmed in his speech has touched on “almost everything the nation was expecting.
“As he has spoken elaborately on different matters, it is now clear that the government is sincere in its efforts to hand over power to an elected government through holding a free and fair election on schedule,” Ershad told The Daily Star.
Of the former rulers, Ershad, who has spent five years in jail, is awaiting trial in some corruption cases, while two former prime ministers, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, are now in jail awaiting trial on various charges.
Welcoming the decision of the chief adviser, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Standing Committee Member Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman said, “I congratulate him for the steps”.
However, the party’s new secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain told New Age: “We will make formal comment after observing to what extent the government relaxes restrictions on political activities.
“The government is yet to elaborate the term ‘indoor politics’… There is no such term in the [national] constitution,” he said.
The Daily Star said editorially: “Now that the ban has been relaxed, the dialogue between the EC and political parties should be held with no conditions attached to it. The envisaged dialogue would enable all the parties to open up sufficiently, discuss the problems and obstacles and eventually pinpoint the areas where reforms are needed most.”
The newspaper emphasised the need for early polls, saying: “Now with the ban on indoor politics gone and the EC having no bar in organising the dialogue, we hope the political parties will now come forward with their specific reform proposals and implement them with all sincerity to make holding a credible election possible.”