Bangladeshi strike disrupts normal life

From Farid Ahmed, For CNN

Protesters from different political parties clash with Bangladeshi riot police during a nationwide strike in Dhaka on April 4.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Courts, schools, shops closed over electoral change
2 opposition parties called strike, are boycotting Parliament
Prime minister calls strike "irrational"

RELATED TOPICS

Bangladesh

Dhaka, Bangladesh (CNN) -- Dhaka's usually bustling streets looked barren Sunday as opposition parties enforced a daylong general strike over a government move to change the electoral system.

Police and witnesses said hundreds of anti-government protesters in the capital and several other districts fought with police, who used clubs and teargas to disperse them.

No major violence was reported, but almost all vehicles stayed off the road, and courts, schools, businesses and shopping malls were closed Sunday, the first working day of the week here.

The main opposition party, Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and its ally Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami called the strike to protest the move to stop appointing a non-party caretaker government to conduct general elections.

The two parties are also boycotting Parliament sessions.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called the strike "irrational" and asked the opposition parties to come to Parliament join a discussion on the issue.

Hasina opted for the electoral change after a top court ruled the provision illegal.

Khaleda Zia, leader of the opposition in Parliament and a former prime minister, said her party would boycott the polls if there was any change in the electoral system.

Currently, a caretaker government, headed by a former chief justice, takes over at the end of the tenure of one government and continues until the new government is formed.

The interim government that looks after routine administrative works is primarily responsible for holding free and fair general elections within 90 days.

Bangladesh has a long history of political violence over polls, and the next general election is scheduled to be held in early 2014.

Bangladesh, which has a parliamentary system of government with a largely ceremonial president elected by Parliament, introduced a non-party caretaker government system for an interim period between two elected governments in 1996 amid bloody street violence over elections.