Opposition Pulls Out of Bangladeshi Elections

Bangladesh was plunged into a political crisis today after the main opposition party pulled out of forthcoming general elections claiming that the polls would be unfair.

"The caretaker government is not neutral," Sheikh Hasina, a former prime minister and leader of the 17-party alliance, led by the Awami League, told a news conference in the country's capital, Dhaka.

"It's biased in favour of our opponents. So we are not going to the polls," said Ms Hasina.

The opposition candidates would pull out from the race on Wednesday, the deadline to withdraw for the polls, scheduled for later this month, she said.

The opposition's move comes after weeks of crippling strikes and violent protests that have claimed more than 30 lives since November.

Another blockade of Dhaka is planned this weekend in an effort to force electoral reforms that would ensure "free and fair" polls.

The outgoing Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) has been accused of trying to rig the elections by stuffing the interim administration with loyalists and admirers.

Ms Hasina's Awami League and its leftwing partners have been calling for a number of pre-poll changes - some of which the election commission has accepted.

Ms Hasina accused the president, Iajuddin Ahmed, of bias toward her rival, the former prime minister Khaleda Zia, and demanded he step down as head of the interim government.

Ms Zia's alliance said it would continue to take part in the electoral process despite the proposed boycott. "We shall take part in the polls in spite of the boycott by Hasina's alliance," Ms Zia's aide Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan told reporters.

There has been some concern in the country that the instability may lead to a takeover by ambitious generals emboldened by the recent coup in Thailand.

Bangladesh, an impoverished nation of 144 million people, has a history of political turmoil, with two presidents killed in military coups.