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Dhaka: A crippling four-day transport blockade was called off in Bangladesh yesterday after the chief election commissioner, under pressure from a 14-party political alliance to resign, stepped aside temporarily.
"We are lifting the blockade, but our pressure on the interim government will continue to further re-organise the election commission and update the voters' list," said Abdul Jalil, general secretary of the alliance's main party, the Awami League.
Traffic streamed back onto the streets of Dhaka and other cities of the impoverished South Asian country, which has been buffeted for weeks by political feuding and violence ahead of January elections.
However, the air was not entirely cleared by the election chief's departure: the alliance raised objections to a plan by the interim government to appoint two election commissioners in addition to the three remaining in office.
Jalil told a news conference the alliance wanted the three existing commissioners to be removed because of their alleged bias towards the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia and its Jamaat-e-Islami ally.
"Instead of doing this, the president is planning to appoint two new commissioners without discussing it with major political parties...," Jalil said.
"This could further complicate matters." He said activists would rally outside the presidential palace on Monday, and lay siege to the election commission's office the following day.
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