International Zia on way to big mandate for plan for Bangladesh

Press, 20 February 1979, Page 9

International Zia on way to big mandate for plan for Bangladesh

NZPA-Reuter

Dacca

I resident Ziaur Rahman’s Bangladesh National I arty headed for a sweeping victory 7 yesterdav in the country s second Parliamentary 7 election since independence in 1971.

As results trickled in, the B.N.P. had won 72 out of the 104 results announced. If the trend keeps up, the President’s party will win more than 200 out of the 300 seats in the new Parliament and thus assure itself of the necessary two-thirds majority that would be required to make constitutional changes. Changes have already been made in the constitution under his three years and a half of military rule. Legal experts feel that

: these will need to be ratified : by the new Parliament. Although the polling : showed another big vote of i confidence in General Zia by : the electorate — he scored _ another big win in Presiden- ' tial elections last year — the exercise is largely acade- ■ mic as General Zia retains ■ executive power anyway as President. The election, however, will • give new Opposition memi bers the chance to air their grievances in open Parliamentary debate — some-

thing that has been denied to them under military rule.

General Zia, the 44-year-old commander of the army, has promised to lift martial law within a week of the Parliament’s being formed. Among the 30 Opposition parties, the Awamy League (Malek) of the former Bangladesh leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was doing best with 14 seats, followed by the right-wing Muslim League-Islamic Democratic League alliance with four.