Former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina vowed to fight religious extremism if she won parliamentary election later this month, saying she would seek support for a South Asian task force to tackle it. Bangladesh has been battling hard-line groups that want to turn the secular democracy into n nation based on Shariah law. Officials say the groups may also try to disrupt the Dec. 29 elections aimed at restoring democracy after two years of emergency. “If elected in the Dec. 29 polls, we will ban communalism in national politics and would propose to form a South Asian task force to combat religious militancy,” Hasina said after she released the election manifesto of her Awami League party. “We will fight militancy, contain rising of commodity prices and face the fallout of global slowdown – among top priorities of our government,” she said. Hasina and her bitter rival and former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia are the front-runners in the election to choose a new prime minister for the nation of 140 million people. Khaleda, who launched her campaign on Friday from the holy city of Sylhet, promised a clean and responsive government in a nation where corruption is seen as widespread. “We are going to fight and win the election. We will establish good governance,” she said. Khaleda, cheered on by thousands of her supporters, offered prayers in Sylhet where she was due to address a rally. She will unveil BNP's manifesto in Dhaka on Saturday. The government lifted the ban on political rallies on Friday and will withdraw the emergency on Dec. 17 ahead of the election. Hasina and Khaleda have alternated as prime ministers for the past 15 years and also remain the front-runners to be the next prime minister, analysts and diplomats say. “Yes, one of these two will become the country's top executive following the election as there is no alternative yet,” said professor Ataur Rahman, chief of Bangladesh Political Science Association. “Despite talks of political reforms over the past two years, politics in this country has remained on the known tracks. Hardly anything has changed,” he said.
