Bangladesh election protest planned

Press, 17 October 1986, Page 6

Bangladesh election protest planned

NZPA-Reuter Dhaka Bangladesh Opposition parties declared a “Day of Protest” today as President Hossain Mohammed Ershad held a commanding lead in the Presidential election in which he faced no serious rivals. Opposition leaders called supporters onto the streets of the capital, Dhaka, for rallies and processions to demonstrate against yesterday’s election, which was boycotted by the main Opposition parties, who charged that the polls had been rigged. “You cannot call it an election. It was nothing but a farce,” said Sheikh Hasina, head of an eight-

party coalition and the Parliamentary Opposition leader. General Ershad, who deposed an elected civilian government in a 1982 military coup, continued to lead 11 mostly obscure opponents in the election. With results counted from 1174 of 23,466 polling centres, General Ershad had 5,068,859 votes to 844,624 for all of his rivals. The police said 103 people were arrested throughout Bangladesh yesterday, bringing total arrests during the election period to about 350. At least three people have been killed and about 100 injured in election-related violence.