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Thousands march on B'desh capital to call for electoral reforms

BANGLADESH: More than 20,000 activists marched in the Bangladeshi capital, defying driving rains, in the fifth day of protests to press for electoral reforms ahead of January polls, police said.

Chanting slogans such as "no reforms, no polls," and "accept reforms before it is too late", the protestors representing a 14-party opposition alliance began the march from Babu Bazar in the old part of Dhaka, police said.

More than 20,000 joined the march as it proceeded peacefully despite downpours, assistant commissioner of police Faridul Islam said.

The parties, led by the main opposition Awami League, started six days of marches across the country on Tuesday to force electoral reforms they say are necessary for free and fair national polls scheduled for January.

Thousands of police and elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) units were deployed along the route after intelligence agencies warned of "subversive acts" by extremists.

"More than 3,000 police and RAB officers were on guard at all the key points along the route to prevent any violence or any subversive acts," Islam said.

A series of nationwide bomb blasts linked to a radical Islamic group has plagued in Bangladesh since August last year. The blasts killed 28 people, including four suicide bombers.

In the last two years, major political violence has also rocked the country, killing a former finance minister and a popular opposition member of parliament.

Sheikh Hasina, former prime minister and leader of the Awami League, narrowly escaped a grenade attack at an August 2004 rally in the capital which killed at least 20 people.

The main opposition Awami League and its 13 allies have held frequent protests in the past two months to demand that the country's chief election commissioner and his two deputies, whom they accuse of being partisan, resign before the elections.

DHAKA, Sunday, AFP

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