Bangladesh Opposition BNP enforces fresh 72-hour Nation wide Blockade Saturday Nov 30,2013

Bangladesh's main opposition BNP and its right wing allies on Saturday began to enforce another 72-hour nationwide blockade demanding postponement of upcoming general elections, a day after ending a deadly protest campaign.

"The countrywide 72-hour road, rail and waterways blockade will start from 6:00 am tomorrow and last until Monday 6 am," BNP joint secretary general and spokesman Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told media

The fresh blockade was called demanding cancellation of the election schedule setting January 5, 2014 for voting and to mount pressure on the Awami League government to release their detained leaders and activists.


Most of the blockade casualties and act of sabotages were reported from outside Dhaka during the previous 71-hour blockade by the BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance with fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, that has claimed 22 lives across the country.


Note
The BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance is demanding installation of a "non-party" government for election oversight with an "acceptable person" as its head.

The ruling Awami League rejected the demand calling it "unconstitutional" while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked the opposition to join the poll-time all-party cabinet. 

The dispute was infuriated after the independent election commission announced the schedule for the 10th general elections setting January 5, 2014 for voting, a plan immediately rejected by the opposition

Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed at the time said the statutory body waited for days for a settlement of disputes among the major parties but was forced to announce the schedule to comply with a constitutional obligation to stage the polls by January 24, 2014.

According to the schedule, December 2,2013 is the last date for submission of nomination papers, meaning the opposition must decide its stance on the polls and nominate candidates while they so far showed no visible effort for the election preparedness while the ruling party announced names of their nominees for the 300 constituencies.

Sheikh Hasina, who heads the Awami League, however, told a party meeting that the elections would be held in due time and urged people to cast their votes and alleged BNP was trying to evade the polls sensing their defeat.