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BD parliamentary

polls on June 12

DHAKA: Parliamentary elections will be held in Bangladesh on June 12, the Chief Election Commissioner announced on Saturday.

Abu Hena said in a televised broadcast the last date for applying to take part in the June 12 poll was May 12.

Bangladesh held general elections on February 15 which the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia won by default.

Opposition parties boycotted the elections and demanded fresh polls under a neutral authority.

President Abdur Rahman Biswas dissolved parliament on March 30 and appointed an 11-member non-party caretaker government headed by ex-chief justice Habibur Rahman after Khaleda resigned following a two-year violent campaign by her opponents.

The Bangladesh constitution requires elections within 90 days of the dissolution of parliament.-Reuter