[ALOCHONA] Bangladesh polls date may be revised: EIU report

Bangladesh polls date may be revised: EIU report 'The focus has now turned towards the question of what kind of election Bangladesh can expect.'     Despite repeated assurances from the military-controlled interim government to hold parliamentary polls in December 2008 as per the roadmap, 'the election date may be revised', forecasts a London-based research group. Given the uncertainties surrounding issues of detention of leaders and lifting of the state of emergency, the research division of the Economist Intelligence Unit said, 'The focus has now turned towards the question of what kind of election Bangladesh can expect.' In its country report on Bangladesh for the month of June, the research group pointed out that if elections were held under the state of emergency with a short duration for campaigns, it would present western governments with a dilemma. 'While they favour a swift return to democracy — the first step being a parliamentary election —they are likely to find it difficult to endorse a poll held under draconian emergency laws with campaigning limited to a few weeks,' the report said. It said that western governments were becoming increasingly concerned about the rising number of human rights infringements and the slow progress in electoral reforms. The Economist Intelligence Unit believes the caretaker government will need to reach an accord with the political parties in the weeks ahead to hold a truly free and fair election, and to prevent a return of political violence. A food crisis has further complicated the caretaker government's exit strategy, the report observed, adding that the state of emergency, imposed initially to restore order and security following violent street protests, could barely contain the growing discontent. 'Despite a bumper boro rice harvest in April-May there is little hope that it will do much to arrest food price inflation,' it added. The EIU report predicted a slowdown of the Bangladesh economy amid multiple shocks and estimated the country's economic growth in the outgoing 2007-08 fiscal at 5.7 per cent, lower than the official estimate at over 6 per cent. The EIU's projection of growth in gross domestic product for the next [2008-09] fiscal year is 6 per cent, whereas the finance adviser, in his budget speech, projected the growth at 6.5 per cent. The report further explained that the price shocks had challenged the pace of reduction in poverty that Bangladesh had made in recent years 'The risk is that unless spiralling inflation is contained, millions of people could fall below the poverty line,' it said. Also, according to the report, the country's transition from trade to investment as the principal driver of economic growth has been slow. 'There are no recent data on investment, proxy indicators such as machinery imports, suggest that investment has slumped.' http://www.newagebd.com/front.html#4

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