Bangladesh opposition vows non-cooperation in bid to halt polls

Dhaka: After enforcing a series of blockades and strikes since October, the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Wednesday vowed "non-cooperation" with the government in a bid to halt the crucial general elections slated for January 7, 2024.

The country's largest opposition party urged people from all walks of life and the administration not to cooperate with the government and boycott the election, reports Xinhua news agency.

The BNP also urged people not to pay taxes from now on.

During a virtual press briefing on Tuesday, BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said BNP acting Chairman Tarique Rahman has announced the movement as its demand for national polls under a non-party caretaker government remains unmet.

"The ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) party is moving towards holding a dummy election on January 7," Rizvi said.

Bangladeshi Law Minister Anisul Huq had earlier called the BNP's demand as "unconstitutional".

A total of 1,886 candidates are contesting in the general election for 300 constituencies.

Out of the total contesting candidates in the 12th national elections, 1,529 are candidates from 27 parties including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's AL party while 357 are independent candidates.

Since late October, the opposition movement has reportedly led to vandalism of vehicles and arson attacks, with deadly clashes between police and workers in Dhaka and elsewhere in the South Asian country almost every day.

On Tuesday, unidentified miscreants set fire to three coaches of a passenger train in Dhaka, killing four people.

In a sumular incident on December 13, one person was killed when seven compartments of a train were derailed on an overpass in Gazipur on the outskirts of Dhaka.

The train derailed after a section of the railway line in Gazipur was allegedly severed by saboteurs due to the ongoing opposition movement.

As a result of the continued violence, army personnel will be deployed across Bangladesh to assist the civil administration in ensuring security ahead of the elections.