Bangladesh’s Zia says polls being manipulated

DHAKA, (AFP)

Former Bangladeshi premier Khaleda Zia Friday accused “unseen hands” of controlling media coverage of elections to be held later this month aimed at restoring democracy.

Zia, who leads the right-of-centre Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), said doubts hung over the fairness of the polls slated for December 29 in the impoverished nation which has had two years of an army-backed government.

She accused “unseen hands” of controlling the media in its coverage of the election campaign at a rally in the northwestern city of Rajshahi, 268 kilometres (160 miles) from the capital Dhaka.

Her speech was broadcast on national television.

“Enough doubts and confusions are surfacing, but consequences will not be good if there is any vote rigging,” Zia, who was prime minister under the last elected government, told the crowd of 20,000.

“If the elections are free and fair, BNP and its alliance will again be returned to power,” Zia said.

The party of her rival Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the left-of-centre Awami League, is ahead in the opinion polls.Bangladesh is ruled by a caretaker government, which two years ago cancelled elections and imposed a state of emergency after months of political violence brought the country to a standstill.

The emergency was lifted on Wednesday after 23 months.The government’s corruption crackdown saw Sheikh Hasina and Zia detained for a year on graft charges.Political commentators say reforms introduced by the government, including a new voter list that has eliminated more than 12.7 million fake names, should make the forthcoming elections among the fairest in the world.

Both women, former prime ministers, have been released on bail in deals with authorities to ensure that their parties, the two biggest in the country, take part in the elections.

The interim authorities have promised to restore democracy by the end of 2008 and the elections will be the first in the country in seven years.