Bangladesh map

In our weekly call in show Hello Washington listeners asked questions on local elections in

Bangladesh, particularly focusing on the debate whether such elections could be held before the national parliamentary elections. The guests, who answered live questions from our listeners in a teleconference line differed in their opinions about the eligibility of the present military backed caretaker government to hold local elections first.

Some guests felt that it is very constitutional to separate local bodies' elections from political elections and, therefore, it is very natural to hold this election first to keep it free from political parties' influence.

 Others felt the present caretaker government has already crossed the constitutional limits for holding power for more than ninety days and an unelected government like the present one in
Bangladesh does not have rights to hold local elections first. They felt that only an elected
government can arrange the local elections. Besides, the questions of removing emergency rules also came up during the discussion.

Our guests were Prof.Ataur Rahman.Professor of Political Science in Dhaka University
who is also the President of Bangladesh Political Science Association; Dr Asif Nazrul, Professor of Law in the University of Dhaka and Mr Nurul Kabir Editor Dhaka's Major English Daily The New Age who joined the show from New York.

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