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Updated Sunday, December 28, 2008 3:53 am TWN, By Anis Ahmed, Reuters



	Scores of posters urging voters to cast their ballot for their respective parties are hung overhead at a busy cross section in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, Dec. 27. Due to restrictions on usage of color and pasting posters on walls, different parties are hanging posters overhead to draw people's attention for the upcoming general elections on Dec. 29. (AP) Enlarge Photo

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Bangladesh election rhetoric heats up

DHAKA -- Candidates in Monday's Bangladesh election to return the country to democracy have traded charges of corruption and vote-rigging, while an attack on a former president's motorcade fanned fears of more widespread violence.

Police meanwhile said they had found some 40 bombs around the country and detained over a dozen suspects linked to possible violence plots.

Violence could scupper hopes for a stable new government that could attract much-needed investment and aid to the impoverished South Asian country of more than 140 million.

Police also said a motorcade carrying former military ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad, chief of the Jatiya Party and Hasina's election ally, was attacked by rival supporters throwing pieces of brick.

Witnesses said about 20 people were injured and several vehicles damaged in the incident, but Ershad was unhurt.

The motorcade was on the way to a poll rally at his Rangpur home district on Saturday.

A scheduled vote two years ago was abandoned due to political violence, but police have played down the threat to a smooth election this time.

The Dec. 29 vote will end the rule of a military-backed interim government that one top contender, former premier Begum Khaleda Zia, says is conspiring to help her bitter rival Sheikh Hasina win.

For her part Hasina, seen by some analysts as the likely winner, accuses Khaleda and her sons of massive corruption and vote tampering.

Hasina's Awami League and Khaleda's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) alternated in power for 15 years till 2006, and are key contenders again.

The election is a crucial test for the country, where some 45 percent of the population lives below the poverty line and frequent floods and cyclones add to economic woes.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon reiterated his call for a peaceful electoral process in Bangladesh, a spokesperson for Ban said in New York on Saturday.

Ban appealed to all political parties to continue to demonstrate responsibility, participate fully and honor the will of the Bangladeshi people, the spokesperson added. Military rule, politically motivated violence and strikes have often disrupted democracy over Bangladesh's 37 years of independence, while elections have been rife with cheating.

This time the interim government and Election Commission have introduced electoral reforms. International monitors say so far, the election process looks credible.

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