OPPOSITION AGITATION CONTINUES AS ELECTION DATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L DHAKA 006709

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/27/2016
TAGS: KDEM PGOV BG
SUBJECT: OPPOSITION AGITATION CONTINUES AS ELECTION DATE
ANNOUNCED


Classified By: DCM Geeta Pasi, reason para 1.4 c.


1. (SBU) Summary. The opposition continues to press
wide-ranging demands through the courts and in the streets,
but it is unclear whether it is prepared to resume its
nationwide blockade. The Election Commission's announcement
today that the election will be on January 21 may heighten
anxieties that the caretaker government will press forward on
elections without addressing other opposition demands. End
Summary.


2. (SBU) On November 27, the Election Commission announced
that national elections will occur on Sunday, January 21, and
that December 10 is the last day for candidates to submit
nomination papers. January 21 is six days later than the
previously anticipated election date but four days before the
end of the 90-day election calendar triggered by the arrival
of the caretaker government.


3. (SBU) Meanwhile, the High Court deferred until November 29
hearing three petitions filed by opposition leaders
challenging President Ahmed's assumption of the chief adviser
mantle, his unilateral exercise of executive authority, and
any announcement of the election schedule before the voter
list issue is resolved.


4. (C) Awami League leaders told us the election schedule
announcement could fuel opposition agitation. Presidium
member Kazi Zafarullah speculated the announcement was rushed
to pre-empt a High Court order to delay it, while Central
Committee member and MP Surangit Sengupta said renewed
agitation on Wednesday, the opposition's latest deadline for
action on its demands, seems inevitable. Agitation options,
he said, range from continuous sieges of key sites like the
Election Commission to a renewed nationwide transportation
blockade.


5. (C) Saber Hussain Chowdhury, secretary to Awami League
president Sheikh Hasina, added: "It seems they deliberately
chose the path of confrontation." Party leaders, he said,
will meet at 1700 today to discuss next steps but the
prevailing mood is one of anger.


6. (SBU) Opposition activists held today a four-hour sit-in
near the presidency to press their demands. There were no
reports of violence.


7. (SBU) Two additional Election Commissioners have
reportedly been selected and will be officially announced
later today. They are Saiful Alam, a former district judge
and the recently retired director general of the
Anti-Corruption Commission, and former Inspector General of
Police Modabbir Hussain Chowdhury. His last government
appointment was as Secretary to the Ministry of Cultural
Affairs during the last Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led
government.


8. (C) Comment: Today's announcement of the election schedule
may suggest the caretaker government plans to press forward
with elections without addressing additional opposition
demands like the voter list. However, regardless of the
court petitions, the Election Commission has been saying for
weeks the schedule would be announced by the end of November
because further delay would undercut its ability to hold a
timely election.
BUTENIS