Former PM returns for Bangladesh poll

Bangladesh's former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, now in the United States on medical parole, will return to Dhaka on Thursday to lead her party in next month's parliamentary election.

"She is coming home on Nov. 6 to begin the formal campaign for the Dec. 18 election and help restore democracy," Syed Ashraful Islam, acting general secretary of her Awami League, told reporters on yesterday.

Chief Election Commissioner A.T.M. Shamsul Huda said in a national broadcast on Sunday evening that the commission would ensure the polls are free, fair and credible, and that troops would be deployed to provide security to voters.

The Awami League and its main rival, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) headed by another former prime minister, Begum Khaleda Zia, both want emergency rule to be lifted immediately.

The home affairs adviser (minister) to the interim government, retired major-general Abdul Matin, said on Monday that emergency rule laws would be relaxed to allow parties "full freedom" to campaign and carry out other election activities.

Matin later said the government had decided to pull back the army, assisting the interim administration since early 2007, to barracks, as part of easing the emergency.

Troops would, however, be deployed during the Dec. 18 election to guard voting centres and ensure safety, election officials have said.

Matin said easing the emergency would make no effect on law and order situation.

The army have been the principal strength behind the interim authority, headed by former central bank governor Fakhruddin Ahmed, and troops are popular with ordinary Bangladeshis.

Army chief General Moeen U. Ahmed told U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Dhaka on Sunday that the military would not interfere in the election, but help authorities to conduct it freely and peacefully.

Awami leaders said Hasina would take part in the election, but the BNP is yet to confirm its participation or whether Khaleda will be in the race.

The two women rotated as prime minister of the impoverished south Asian country over 15 years until October 2006, when Khaleda's second five-year term ended.

Hasina and Khaleda have been arrested for alleged corruption, along with dozens of their former ministers and close relatives, but were released recently on bail.