One dead in Bangladesh clashes ahead of strike

DHAKA, Dec 20 (Reuters) One person was killed and 20 were injured in a clash between rival political activists in Bangladesh today, a day before a nationwide strike called to demand electoral reforms for upcoming polls.

Tension has been rising ahead of the January 22 parliamentary elections with a multi-party alliance threatening to boycott the polls unless its demands to reform the Election Commission and more time for campaigning are met.

Today, activists from the rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Awami League hurled sticks and stones at each other at Shailkupa 250 km west of Dhaka, killing one man. Police used batons to end the violence.

Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina, who heads the 14-party alliance, has urged supporters to enforce Thursday's nationwide strike.

The country is being run by a caretaker government after BNP chief Begum Khaleda Zia ended her five-year term as prime minister in October.

Hasina accuses the country's president and head of the interim authority, Iajuddin Ahmed, of favouring Khaleda to ensure she wins the election and has demanded the president step aside. The interim government is charged with organising the polls.

A 10-member council of advisers headed by Ahmed met today and said the poll date of Januart 22 remained unchanged, said Adviser Mahbubul Alam, in charge of the information ministry.

''The caretaker government calls upon all political parties to accept the new schedule and participate in the election,'' Alam told reporters after the meeting.

The Awami League has rejected the call and the poll schedule.

''We will lay an indefinite siege on the presidential palace, if demands are not met by tomorrow,'' Obaidul Quader, a senior Awami League official, told reporters.

At least 45 people have been killed and hundreds injured since late October in protests over electoral reforms. Hasina has called for some election officials to be removed, accusing them of being biased.

The advisers asked one of the disputed officials to go on leave during the elections, Alam said without giving details. He said enrolment of voters would continue until January 21.

REUTERS LL BD1946