Call for polls gets louder in Dhaka

As fractures show in the grouping that ousted Sheikh Hasina, impatience over the caretaker government's poor performance is growing

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Bangladesh army chief General Waker-uz-Zaman this week called for holding elections within the year, a demand that came against the backdrop of emerging fractures in the grouping of political and student forces that came together to oust Sheikh Hasina in last year's popular uprising. Zaman's call has now been echoed by former premier Khaleda Zia, whose Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) supported the uprising. The BNP urged the interim government in Dhaka to organise polls after rolling out the minimum necessary reforms. Other senior leaders of the BNP have been more critical of the caretaker administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus while demanding elections, with some airing their suspicions about the impartiality of the interim government.