Bangladesh on Thursday scrapped a system of holding national elections under a non-partisan caretaker administration that was introduced in the mid-1990s to try to end the violence and fraud that have often marred voting in the South Asian country, according to Reuters. The planned constitutional amendment provoked unrest this month, when opposition supporters clashed with security forces during a general strike called to protest against the move. The 345-member legislature passed the amendment by 291 to 1, in a vote boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) of former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia. Khaleda termed the amendment an attempt by the ruling Awami League to cling to power "by fraud and through staging a farcical election under a party government". "By unilaterally scrapping the caretaker system, the government has shut all doors of negotiation and settlement, and thus made conflicts inevitable," Khaleda told a news conference after parliament amended the constitution. "It trampled spirits and values of democracy and the people's right to exercise their franchise freely." In May, Bangladesh's Supreme Court had ruled the system of interim administrations unconstitutional. Under the system, a caretaker authority of technocrats could stay in office for 90 days, mandated to organise the election and the transfer of power to the newly elected government within that timeframe. But the last caretaker authority, which took over in January 2007 in the wake of widespread political violence and was backed by the armed forces, held power for two years. It held an election in December 2008 that swept Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina back to power, defeating her rival and immediate predecessor Khaleda. Khaleda said Sheikh Hasina was "using the Supreme Court verdict as a pretext to fulfil her desire to steal results of the coming election" and vowed to launch a fierce movement to foil this. She did not announce plans for fresh protests immediately, but BNP leaders said they would be unveiled after talking with the allies. "By tampering the constitution and conspiring to establish a one-party rule, the present government has pushed the country towards a serious crisis," Khaleda said. Analysts say elections conducted under caretaker administrations were generally credible and peaceful, though the losers always complained of fraud and rigging. But the major parties resented the last interim authority's attempts to use its power to rein in corruption, sending hundreds of politicians, including Hasina and Khaleda, to jail on charges of abusing power to amass wealth illegally. The two women were released before the December 2008 election, along with scores of other detained politicians. The next election is not due before end of 2013.
