Bangladesh poll chiefs expected to quit on Wednesday

DHAKA, Jan 30 (Reuters) Senior officials at Bangladesh's election commission are expected to resign today, raising hopes that a political crisis that has gripped the country for months could be drawing to a close.

Local media said the acting chief election commissioner and three of his deputies would meet President Iajuddin Ahmed tomorrow to hand in their resignations.

Commission chief Mahfuzur Rahman is accused of bias by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her allies and roundly accused of incompetence for failing to organise an election that was originally scheduled for January 22.

Hasina has said she would not participate in any election supervised by Rahman and his team. Western governments and the United Nations say an election without the participation of all major parties would not be acceptable.

Officials were not immediately available for comment, but local media -- quoting unnamed government and commission sources -- said the resignations were imminent.

The commissioners have previously said they would quit only if the president, who is the ceremonial head of state and constitutional chief of the armed forces, asked them to step down.

Bangladesh has been in the grip of political crisis since October 28 when Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia stood down at the end of a five year term and handed power to a caretaker administration that was supposed to oversee elections.

The heads of both the administration and election commission have already changed once under pressure from feuding political parties and President Iajjuddin declared emergency rule on January 11.

Both Hasina and Khaleda have urged the new interim authority to organise polls soon, but a court ruling on Monday ruled that out for at least another three months.

Ruling on a writ filed by a private citizen, the High Court said yesterday that elections could not be held until the voter registration process had been completely overhauled.

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