Bangladesh poll winner Hasina offers to share power
DHAKA (Reuters) - Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Wednesday she was willing to share power with the disgruntled opposition after winning a massive majority in Bangladesh's parliamentary election this week.
A senior opposition party leader did not rule out cooperation but said it would wait to see if the winning camp was sincere and refrained from the sort of harsh treatment of opposition supporters seen in the past.
Hasina said on Wednesday she was ready to offer senior parliamentary posts to bitter political rival Begum Khaleda Zia and her party, although Khaleda earlier rejected the results of an election that returned Bangladesh to democracy after two years' emergency rule.
Independent monitors said the ballot was fair, but Khaleda, also a former prime minister, has alleged widespread fraud. That has raised fears of street protests by her supporters.
The outgoing army-backed interim government suspended many political rights after cancelling an election in January 2007 amidst widespread street actions and political violence.
Hasina met chief of the interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on Wednesday evening.
"We discussed plans of the new government, transition of power and ratification of the actions of the interim authority in the next parliament," she told reporters.
"Power will be transferred smoothly, and as quickly as possible," Fakhruddin said.
Earlier, at her first post-election news conference, a smiling and confident-sounding Hasina had urged Khaleda to accept the results, adding she wanted her government to work with all sides to establish a new political culture in Bangladesh.
"As winners, we have to deal with everything with a sense of forgiveness and accommodation instead of vengeance, to take the country forward," said the bespectacled Hasina, 61, who wore a green- and gold-bordered saree and arrived 50 minutes late.
"(Khaleda) should accept the people's verdict. I am ready to work with everyone," Hasina said.
She said she was prepared to offer opposition members parliamentary and ministerial posts if they were willing to cooperate with the government.
Hasina's Awami League and its allies won more than two-thirds of parliament's 300 seats in Bangladesh's first election in seven years on Monday. The coalition led by Khaleda's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) took just 31.
LOPSIDED, BUT FAIR
Despite the lopsided margin, one monitoring group after another has said the poll appeared largely fair.
One of the latest such endorsements came from the European Union Observation Mission.
Its chief observer, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, also told reporters on Wednesday the BNP "complained about irregularities in 224 polling stations while there are 45,000 (total) so the number of complaints are very insignificant."
"We also want to strengthen democracy, but we first have to see if they want to persecute their opponents," BNP secretary-general Khandaker Delwar Hossain told Reuters.
Bangladesh election winners or their supporters have frequently mistreated their opposite numbers in ways ranging from beatings to bringing dubious legal charges against them.
Khaleda has given little indication of what action, if any, she might take, over her charges that Monday's vote was rigged.
In the past, losing parties have often resorted to strikes and street protests that can turn violent -- and provide a rationale for intervention in government by the military.
Hasina and Khaleda alternated in power during the 15 years up to 2006 in Bangladesh's personality-dominated politics. But many problems went unresolved, in part due to the mass street agitation by their parties when out of office.
The turbulence kept investors away and distracted the government from other problems.
Widespread protests have yet to happen this week. Strong security imposed for Monday's election remained in place, partly aimed at Islamist militants linked to the seizure of grenades and explosives before and since the vote.
Hasina said on Wednesday she would "never allow use of Bangladesh soil ... by militants" and would work with India and other South Asian nations against terrorism.
She said Bangladesh wanted good relations with "very important" neighbour Myanmar, but added that its military rulers should release its detained main opponent, Aung Saan Suu Kyi.
Hasina called poverty the number one enemy in Bangladesh -- where 45 percent of the population live below the poverty line -- and said corruption had to be curbed to reduce it.
She promised to strengthen the anti-corruption commission. The interim government detained Hasina herself for a year on graft charges, which she denied.
(Additional reporting by Ruma Paul, Serajul Islam Quadir and Masud Karim; Writing by Jerry Norton; Editing by Alex Richardson)