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DHAKA : The new head of Bangladesh's interim government has been sworn after the president postponed general elections and declared a state of emergency, bowing to opposition demands following months of street protests.
President Iajuddin Ahmed stepped aside as head of the interim government to clear the way for a new caretaker administration with the difficult task of steering the country towards free and fair polls.
Fakhruddin Ahmed, the former governor of Bangladesh central bank was sworn in at a ceremony shown live by the state-run BTV television Friday.
"I, Fakhruddin Ahmed, am taking the oath that I will faithfully serve the duty of the chief advisor of the caretaker government as per the law," he pledged before an audience of political leaders, diplomats, and representatives of the armed forces.
The Princeton-educated former World Bank employee, who is seen as politically independent, now has to win the confidence of both main parties to hold credible elections.
A ten-member advisory council (cabinet) is due to be announced over the next few days.
The economist was chosen to head the new government after Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus turned down the job.
The president's announcements late Thursday night ended a string of violent and crippling nationwide strikes and blockades by the main opposition Awami League and its allies which had said they would boycott the January 22 polls.
Speaking in a televised address to the nation a day after deploying 60,000 troops nationwide, Ahmed said the opposition's threat to resume its protests from Sunday had left Bangladesh facing a "grave situation".
Citing a danger of the situation spiralling out of control, he declared a state of emergency that also included a ban on all political gatherings.
A nationwide night-time curfew was, however, lifted on Friday in a sign of improved stability in the nation in the wake of Thursday's measures.
Ahmed said in his address that the new caretaker government would "hold dialogue with all the parties, and prepare for new elections within the shortest possible time." He did not specify when they would be held.
The last state of emergency in Bangladesh was in October 1990, before the ousting of military dictator Hossain Muhammad Ershad.
But despite the reintroduction of democracy 16 years ago, both main parties of the Awami League and Bangladesh National Party (BNP) have regularly boycotted parliament and staged national strikes as negotiating tactics when in opposition.
The secular, Muslim-majority country of 144 million has a history of coups and counter coups since winning independence from Pakistan in 1971.
The opposition alleges the outgoing BNP sought to rig the upcoming elections by drawing up a voter list containing 14 million fake names.
More than 35 people have been killed in the pre-election unrest since late October when the interim authority took over from the BNP-led government.
The Awami League welcomed the postponement of the elections saying that it was a vindication of their allegations.
The announcements came after the United Nations also said that pressing ahead with the polls could see the Bangladesh army stripped of its lucrative and prestigious "blue helmet" peacekeeping duties.
In the capital, most people appeared to be breathing a sigh of relief that weeks of violence has given way to some sense of normality.
"Today, after a long time, I can walk freely and without tension in the city. Calm has come everywhere," Mahmudul Islam Apu, a student, told AFP as he walked past the heavily-fortified presidential palace in Dhaka.
Both the United States and Britain released statements Friday regretting the need for an emergency and urging the caretaker government and the political parties to work together to enable credible elections to go ahead.
- AFP /ls
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