Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, whose five-year term ends next month, Saturday said if she was voted back to power Bangladesh's development would continue.
"If you vote the Awami League back to power the spree of development activities will continue as my government has endeavoured to do in the past five years," she told a huge public rally in southern Madaripur, after a groundbreaking ceremony of a 450-metre long bridge over Arail Kha river here.
She added: "We want to develop Bangladesh so that we do not have to seek foreign aid from door-to-door."
Sheikh Hasina also introduced French Ambassador Micel Lummauz, Norwegian ambassador Gerd Wahlstrom and Antonio De Souza Menezes, the envoy for the European Union, to a cheering crowd.
The three envoys along with a group of local and foreign journalists were on a tour with the premier Saturday to see one of her projects for the homeless.
Sheikh Hasina, giving lengthy statistics, said her government allocated maximum funds in the national budget for poverty alleviation and infrastructure development.
The 330-member parliament's tenure ends on July 12, after which Sheikh Hasina will hand over power to a neutral caretaker government which will organise elections by October or within 90 days.
The house, which is now in its last session, is the first in Bangladesh's 30-year history to complete its five-year term. Others have been cut short by political upheavals.
The opposition, which failed to oust Sheikh Hasina in a long and bitter campaign, has also started unofficial campaign blasting the government for rampant corruption and increasing lawlessness. The government denies the charges.
Meanwhile, the four-party opposition alliance led by the former prime minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party has formed a coordination committee which will decide who takes what seat as they go on to fight the elections.
Other alliance members are the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, rightwing Islami Oikkya jote and a small faction of the Jatitay Party. |
