Bangladesh May Delay Dec. 18 Election

The deadline for submitting lists of candidates expires on Sunday evening.

Bangladesh election chief said on Saturday that a parliamentary vote scheduled for Dec. 18 is likely to be delayed to allow all major parties to participate.

"In most likelihood, the election will be shifted from Dec. 18, and a new schedule will be given tomorrow (Sunday)," Chief Election Commissioner A.T.M. Shamsul Huda told reporters.

He made the comment after talking to the two biggest parties, the Awami League of Sheikh Hasina and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of Begum Khaleda Zia.

Both former prime ministers are bitter rivals and likely front-runners in the coming election.

Khaleda said on Thursday that her party would participate in the election if it was held on Dec. 28, after the government had rejected her demand to postpone the vote for a month.

The deadline for submitting lists of candidates expires on Sunday evening.

Huda heard a BNP-led alliance on Friday reiterate Khaleda's demand to delay the election. Awami League had agreed to take part in the Dec. 18 election and already chose its candidates.

"We heard both sides and gave them our opinions. But a decision is still pending," Huda said.

Awami spokesman Syed Ashraful Islam on Saturday accused the army-backed interim government of "telling lies or giving wrong information" to the nation, by saying last week that "a change in the election date could not be decided because of disagreement between the two main parties and their allies."

The confusion arose after Khaleda said that cabinet member Hossain Zillur Rahman had told BNP that delaying the vote was not possible because Awami League opposed it.

Ashraful on Saturday said "Hossain Zillur did not even discuss it with us and we hope he would desist from lying or giving wrong information in future."

Neither Zillur nor any member of the cabinet was immediately available for a comment.

The commission extended the nomination filing deadline to Nov. 23 from Nov. 20 to allow more candidates to register and hoping that the BNP would agree to take part in the vote.

Both the BNP and Awami League -- which took turns in forming governments over 15 years until October 2006 -- want complete lifting of a state of emergency imposed in January 2007 when the interim government took over. They also want to delay rural election set for Dec. 28 until the end of January.

Huda said lifting the emergency was a matter for the government but the commission would consider putting off rural polls if the parliamentary election date is changed.