Bangladesh amendment ends non-party election oversight By Farid Ahmed, For CNN July 1, 2011

Bangladesh's parliament on Thursday abolished the nonpartisan caretaker government system that oversees general elections, amid protests from the opposition that the ruling parties are trying to rig the polls.

The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party abstained from voting on the constitutional amendment bill, which passed 291-1, well beyond the two-thirds majority needed in the 345-member House. A few leftist members of parliament belonging to the ruling coalition voted in favor of the changes despite their objections to retaining Islam as the state religion.

At a press briefing after the vote, BNP leader Khaleda Zia said the government showed "complete disregard for the main opposition BNP and the public sentiment."

"The ruling party is pushing the country into chaos," said Zia, who twice has served as prime minister (1991-96 and 2001-06).

The BNP and its Islamic allies threatened an anti-government movement, but Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina warned against it.

Prior to the vote, BNP had threatened to call for a nonstop general strike to protest abolition of the caretaker government. Along with its two Islamist allies -- Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and Islamic Okiya Jote -- BNP enforced the most recent general strike, a 36-hour stoppage that started June 12. More than a dozen buses and cars were torched during the protests in the streets of Dhaka. More than 100 people were arrested.

Hasina denied the vote-rigging allegations against the Awami League -- the center-left, secular party that heads the ruling coalition. She said opposition parties could still propose their plan for how the next general elections will be held, "but the caretaker system will exist no longer."

Bangladesh has a long history of electoral violence. The caretaker system, which installs the non-party government for an interim period between two elected governments, was instituted in 1996 amid bloody street violence over elections.

Under the system, the caretaker government, headed by a former chief justice, takes over as one government's tenure ends and continues until the new government is formed. The interim government looks after routine administration and is primarily responsible for holding free and fair general elections within 90 days.

The system came under fire in 2007 after a military-backed interim government stayed beyond its mandated three months and delayed the voting by about two years.

Bangladesh's Supreme Court recently pronounced the caretaker government provision illegal.

The next general elections are scheduled for early 2014.