Political parties, intellectuals and former advisors of the caretaker government on Wednesday dubbed the Awami League (AL)-led alliance's boycott of Bangladesh's national election slated for Jan. 22 as a matter of sorrow and said the country is heading towards uncertainty.

Barrister Nazmul Huda, a senior leader of former ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), said: "The alliance was aware that the people are not with it. They will lose the election again. Sensing their defeat in the coming election, they took the decision not to go to the polls."

Moulana Matiur Rahman Nizami, chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, a key partner of the BNP-led four-party alliance said the caretaker government had taken different steps in line with the demands of the former opposition AL-led grand alliance one after another. Still the decision of the grand alliance was a matter of sorrow.

He said holding the election within 90 days after the caretaker government took over is compulsory under the country's constitution, otherwise a constitutional crisis would be created in the country.

Nizami said: "For constitutional compulsion, the election must be held and the four-party alliance will join it."

There was no other alternative left to election for continuation of the constitutional process, said Dr. Sirajul Islam, a teacher of Dhaka University.

Billing the decision of the grand alliance as "catastrophe" for the nation, Dr. Islam said Chief Advisor of caretaker government Iajuddin Ahmed, who is also President of Bangladesh, will have to take steps to come out of the catastrophe.

Expressing his frustration, Dr. Islam said the election should be held for continuation of constitutional process. He also said the decision will push the country towards total uncertainty.

A former advisor to the caretaker government said one party election will not be acceptable both at home and abroad and this would push the country towards confrontations as the BNP-led four-party alliance will try to hold the election and the AL-led grand alliance will try to resist it.

The AL-led alliance chief Sheikh Hasina, who also heads the AL, announced on Wednesday that the alliance will not go to the polls as what she said no election would be clean under Iajuddin.

She urged Iajuddin to step down and urged the caretaker government to correct the voter list first, publish it and then announce the election schedule.

"In the voter list AL voters were absent. Unless the caretaker government corrects the voter list, we cannot go to the polls," Hasina said.

Bangladesh introduced the caretaker government system in 1996, which stipulates that a non-party caretaker government will supervise the national election within three months after it takes office.

Bangladeshi President Iajuddin Ahmed took over the post of Chief Advisor of caretaker government on Oct. 29 as five-year tenure of BNP-led four-party alliance government ran out on Oct. 27.

But AL alleged that Iajuddin is not a non-partisan man as he was chosen as Bangladeshi president by BNP-led four party alliance government.

(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2007)