Govt bends emergency rules before total lifting on Dec 17

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Political rallies will rock streets afresh from today (Friday) as the caretaker government has bent the emergency rules for electioneering before total lifting of the state of emergency ahead of the December 29 parliamentary polls, reports UNB.
The interim regime Wednesday night announced the revocation of the relevant Section 3 of the Emergency Powers Rules (EPR) to help the political parties in electioneering, though the overhang of the emergency remains for some more days.
After scrapping of the Section 3 of the EPR, the election campaigns will be conducted in compliance with the Code of Conduct 2008 issued by the Election Commission for political parties and the contesting candidates, said the government announcement made in an impromptu press briefing.
The government also decided to lift the state of emergency entirely on December 17 restoring the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution, "in consideration of overall administration", with the approval from the President.
In the context of the pressing demand from all major political parties, the government made the announcement a day before the last date for withdrawal of candidature for the general election.
Especially, the BNP led-alliance put tremendous pressure on the government to lift the state of emergency from December 11, the last date for withdrawal of candidature.
And they eventually hailed the government decisions and announced their plan for going to polls.
On January 11 last year, President Professor Dr Iajuddin Ahmed declared the state of emergency to quell political violence over the abortive parliament elections originally slated for January 22, 2007.