Bangladesh to deploy military troops to maintain order during elections

The Bangladesh Election Commission has announced to deploy troops for 15 days from Dec. 26 as part of beefed up security measures to hold parliamentary polls slated for Jan. 5. Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad made the announcement Friday night after meeting the relevant authorities. " Bangladesh Army personnel will be deployed across the country to maintain order during the elections." He could not tell the exact number of army personnel to be deployed in all the 64 Bangladesh districts during the elections. "Based on intelligence reports, the relevant authorities will finalize the figures of military troopers to be deployed." Ahmed said some Bangladesh places with worsened law and order situation will likely to see army deployment for a longer period. Widespread violence erupted across Bangladesh since last month as the country's main opposition party-led alliance decided to boycott the general elections. The country's main opposition alliance has asked Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to bring back a non-party caretaker system, or else the opposition won't participate in the next election because it fears an election without the non-party caretaker government will not be free and fair. Former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's opposition alliance on Thursday called a fresh four-day blockade from Saturday morning, demanding parliamentary polls under an interim non-party caretaker government. Khaleda's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its 17 allies have started enforcing prolonged blockades after the Election Commission on Nov. 25 announced the schedule for the 10th parliamentary polls. Scores of people including ruling and opposition men have been killed and hundreds of others injured in wide spread violence since Nov. 26. Citing inability of Bangladesh political forces to "create the necessary conditions for transparent, inclusive and credible elections, the European Union (EU) on Friday said it halted preparations for the deployment of an observer mission in the country.