Bangladesh to deploy army during parliamentary elections

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - Bangladesh will deploy army personnel in the runup to parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 7 to help maintain law and order, its Election Commission announced Monday.

The military will be deployed from Dec. 29 to Jan. 10 in order to “assist the local civil administration to ensure peace and order and control before the polling, on the day of polling and after the polling,” the commission said in statement.

The troops will be deployed in all 300 constituencies, it added.

Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal said the election would have been much more inclusive if the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) had participated.

“We called them from the beginning, invited them, but they did not respond,” he said.

The BNP, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party and allies have boycotted the election, calling it a "staged election" to return the incumbent Awami League government to power.

The opposition parties have been demanding a neutral caretaker government to hold the election. The government, however, has rejected such a setup, calling it unconstitutional.

Bangladesh has been mired in a political crisis ahead of the election, particularly after an Oct. 28 political showdown.

Since Oct. 28, at least 23 opposition supporters have been killed, including a journalist and a police officer, while more than 24,900 BNP supporters have been arrested. Over 1,140 others have been sentenced to jail terms, while cases were filed against more than 92,400 mostly after late October this year, according to the BNP.