Bangladesh ex-ruler backtracks on Khaleda alliance

DHAKA, Nov 6 (Reuters) Former Bangladesh military ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad said today he would not join an election alliance with former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, backtracking on an announcement he made last week.

''I have decided not to make my Jatiya Party an alliance partner of Begum Khaleda's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP),'' Ershad told reporters after a party meeting.

''This is because the majority of leaders and workers of my party did not support my idea,'' he added.

Political analysts said Ershad, who ruled Bangladesh for nearly nine years after seizing power in a bloodless coup in March 1982, remained ''as unpredictable as ever''.

Newspapers today said Ershad backtracked because the BNP refused to guarantee his party 40 uncontested parliamentary seats in elections scheduled for January 2007 or give the party a cash donation for joining the alliance.

Ershad made no comment on the reports.

FRIENDS THEN FOES Ershad was ousted in December 1990 after a popular uprising led jointly by Khaleda and Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League.

The two women have been foes since then.

Analysts said Ershad joining hands with the BNP could have strengthened Khaleda's chances of regaining power in the face of a strong challenge from Hasina, also a former prime minister.

The coming election will be supervised by a caretaker government headed by state president Iajuddin Ahmed, who is being pressed by the Awami league and its allies to make sweeping reforms at the Election Commission to ensure a fair election.

In particular, they want commission chief M A Aziz and his deputies to be dismissed. The BNP insists the president cannot ask Aziz to quit as holds a constitutionally protected post.

Adding to the dilemma, Aziz said late yesterday that he would not resign even if asked to by the caretaker authority.

The Awami League has threatened to paralyse the country from November 12 through blockades and other protests unless Iajuddin goes.

REUTERS SP DS1545