Bangladesh Sunday banned protests outside the country's presidential palace after the opposition vowed to hold massive rallies there this week to press its demand for election reforms.
Police banned all types of protests, rallies and demonstrations which "may disrupt security of the (presidential palace) Bangabhaban," Dhaka police chief A.B.M Bazlur Rahman said in a statement.
The ban was imposed after the main opposition Awami League and its 13 leftist allies called for demonstrations in front of the palace, starting Monday, to press their demand for election reforms.
"We will go ahead with our programme. It's our democratic right to hold peaceful protests to realise the voting rights of the people," spokesman of the 14-party alliance, Abdul Jalil, said.
Jalil said the protests aimed to force the government to reconstitute the election commission before polls in January and revise the existing voters list, which he said had 14 million fake names.
"We are expecting at least 100,000 people to join our rally," he added. The 14-party alliance has held a series of crippling nation-wide transport blockades and protests to oust the country's proposed interim government chief, the chief election commissioner and his deputies.
The alliance accused them of trying to rig polls in favour of the outgoing Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led government. Bowing to protests, the proposed interim government chief declined to take the helm of the interim government. President Iajuddin Ahmed later named himself as the interim government chief.
The chief election commissioner also bowed to violent protests and went on three months extended leave so the elections could be held without him overseeing them. Political violence in the past month has left at least 30 people dead.
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