Major political parties in Bangladesh have signed a plan for political reforms proposed by the interim government as police clashed with protesters who wanted more provisions for the activists who helped oust the previous government.
Police officers fired tear gas and used stun grenades and batons to disperse several hundred protesters outside the national parliament building in the capital Dhaka on Friday.
Some of them clashed with police while others vandalised a police vehicle.
Witnesses said several people were injured in the clashes.
There were some reports of violence at the protests. (AP Photo: Mahmud Hossain Opu)
The protesters described themselves as part of the movement that led to the ouster in August 2024 of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
It came after a 15-year rule that critics said had become increasingly autocratic.
The protesters said they were seeking more guarantees of welfare and other programs for participants in the 2024 movement.
Path to reform
The interim government, headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, invited the country’s main political parties to sign the new political charter on Friday to pave the way for a raft of political reforms.
Ms Hasina’s Awami League was not among them, however, after it was banned by the interim government.
The document, named the “July National Charter” after the national uprising that began in July 2024, is non-binding.
The proposals for constitutional and legal changes must be approved by a new parliament after elections, which Mr Yunus has promised for next February.
The road map’s provisions would include bringing more checks and balances to the country’s political system to avoid authoritarian administrations, including by giving the presidency more authority to balance what had been a powerful prime minister position.
It also proposes term limits for legislators, and measures to prevent conflicts of interest, money laundering and corruption.
Muhammad Yunus holds a copy of the political reform charter outside parliament. (AP Photo: Mahmud Hossain Opu)
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, and eight like-minded parties signed the charter, as well as 16 others, including smaller Islamist parties.
The country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, was initially undecided, but later agreed to sign the charter.
Four left-wing parties and a newly-formed student-led party, National Citizen Party, did not take part.
Mr Yunus told the audience gathered outside the parliament building that the signings meant a new Bangladesh was taking shape.
“We have entered into a civilised society from barbarism,” he said.
A National Consensus Commission formed by the Yunus government prepared the charter after a series of talks with 30 political parties. According to the Election Commission, the country has 51 registered political parties.
Ms Hasina, who was toppled last August after huge protests, is in exile in India and is being tried in absentia on charges of crimes against humanity.
The United Nations has said that up to 1,400 people may have been killed in the weeks-long uprising last year.
Mr Yunus has promised to hold the next national election in February, but questions remain whether the election will be inclusive without Ms Hasina’s party and its allies in the race.
AP/ABC