Security was tight in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka yesterday as thousands of opposition supporters prepared to rally near the presidential palace to demand a delay of next month's elections.
The opposition said Sheilkh Hasina, leader of the main opposition Awami League, would make a "key speech" on the upcoming polls.
"She will demand a reconstitution of the election commission and a delay in the election schedule by more than a month," Obaidul Kader, an opposition spokesman, said.
"It is now impossible to join the January 23 elections because the caretaker government has yet to implement some of our key electoral demands which are a must for free and fair polls," he said.
The opposition has been demanding that President Iajuddin Ahmed, the head of the interim government, remove two controversial election commissioners seen as being biased in favour of the outgoing Bangladesh National Party (BNP) of Khaleda Zia.
The president has said he will send one of them on extended leave but has so far refused to do the same for the other.
Experts said the demand to delay elections will create a constitutional crisis as the country's interim government has the mandate to organize elections within only 90 days of its tenure.
Bangladesh's interim government vowed last week it was making a last-ditch attempt to meet the opposition's remaining demands. But the deadline passed on Saturday.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
LAOS: The bars of bustling Vang Vieng remain open, but information on the investigation into the deaths of six backpackers from suspected methanol poisoning is scarce The music is still playing and the alcohol is still flowing at the bars along one of the party streets in Vang Vieng. Inside a popular venue, a voice over the speaker announces a special offer on beers, as disco lights flicker on the floor. Small paper flags from nations across the world — from the UK to Gabon — hang from the ceiling. Young people travel from all corners of the globe to party in the small town nestled in the Laos countryside, but Vang Vieng is under a global spotlight, following a suspected mass methanol poisoning that killed six
RSS