Bangladeshi government bans political rallies for one month

Supporters of 18 opposition parties take part in a mass rally at Motijheel area in Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, on May 4, 2013. Bangladesh's main opposition in parliament Saturday evening slapped a 48-hour ultimatum on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government to announce the restoration of a non-party caretaker government system. <Xinhua/Shariful Islam>

Bangladeshi government Sunday banned political rallies for one month, a step that opposition describe as an attempt to mute dissenting voices over poll-time government.

Home Minister MK Alamgir on Sunday said, “We’ll not allow political meetings and rallies for next one month across the country.”

In the seaport city Chittagong, some 240 km southeast of capital Dhaka, he gave the announcement while showing the incidents of deadly violence in the recent months as reasons behind the decision to ban rallies and meetings.

Ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party ( BNP) has warned Hasina’s Bangladesh Awami League (AL) party government of waging tougher movements if the main opposition is barred from holding rally to drum up public support for its long- standing demand for restoration of a non-party caretaker government system to oversee the next general elections slated for early 2014.

Alamgir said some groups with high vested interest are hatching conspiracy to create anarchy in the country in the name of political meetings and rallies, “that’s why we had to take this decision.”

As the outgoing government hands over their power, the caretaker government comes into place and its main objective is to ensure an election can be held in a free and fair manner without any political influence of the outgoing government.

Since 1996, in the South Asian country, which has a history of frequent electoral fraud and violence, the caretaker government has held elections in 1996, 2001 and 2008, which were recognized as free and fair by local and international observers. <Xinhua/Newsis>