Dhaka: General elections in emergency-ruled Bangladesh, scheduled for December 18 this year, have hit another road block with the two major political parties of the country opposing the recently amended crucial election law.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former prime minister Khaleda Zia renewed its demand for staging the polls under the previous Representation of People Order (RPO) scrapping the amended one. "We want to participate in the elections but a number of provisions in the amended RPO including the mandatory registration of parties are contrary to holding of free and fair elections," BNP secretary general Khondokar Delwar Hossain said yesterday.

His comments came hours after Zia's archrival Sheikh Hasina's Awami League decided to scrap the party's front organisations and overseas units as required for the registration under the amended RPO, which came as part of a massive reform campaign of the current interim administration.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission (EC) yesterday declared that the October 15 deadline for the registration of political parties as required by the new RPO would not be extended. The new RPO was enacted last month in line with an EC draft following several rounds of consultations between the government, the commission and various political parties.

The amended RPO also incorporated an option allowing voters to cast no-vote in ballot saying if 50 per cent of votes are no-votes then the constituency would have to go for a re-election.

Source : PTI