Sheikh Hasina yesterday was noncommittal about her party's participating in the next election, and expressed doubt over holding of a fair poll under President and Chief Adviser Iajuddin Ahmed as both the advisers and people have lost faith in him.

"We have all the preparation for taking part in the next poll. But how will we--and the people--participate in the poll as a congenial atmosphere for a free and fair election has not been created in the country?" the Awami League (AL) president said.

Addressing a meeting with leaders of a faction of Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ) at the China-Bangladesh Friendship Conference Centre in the capital, Hasina said the president has created such a terrible situation in the country that holding of the next election has become uncertain.

The AL chief demanded immediate implementation of the package deal negotiated between the advisers and them.

"We demanded reshuffle in the administration, reconstitution of the Election Commission and correction of the voter list for holding a free and fair election," she said.

"But the president and chief adviser, who himself signed the package proposal, backtracked after getting directions from an alliance leader to give her the chance to steal votes in the upcoming election," she said hinting at BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

"The president has only been following her directions over telephone," she said.

Hasina alleged that the president deployed the armed forces just when the 14-party alliance postponed its demonstration programmes.

SEE PAGE 15 COL 6 FROM PAGE 16

She termed the president's deploying the army an act "to guard the looters of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami".

"We want election but it must be a free and fair one," Hasina said, demanding that all names of eligible persons will have to be included in the voter roll currently under a process for correction.

Hasina said a tense situation is now prevailing in the country following the resignation of the four advisers to the caretaker government.

The AL chief was highly critical of the previous BNP-Jamaat coalition government for its wide scale corruption, misrule and use of Islam for political gain, and its failure to check price hike of essentials.

She said the Jamaat-e-Islami has been misleading the people in the name of Islam for its mean political gain and has tarnished the image of the peaceful religionin the world.

IOJ Chairman Misbaur Rahman Chowdhury expressed his party's solidarity with the AL and pledged to be in the streets to press home the demands for creating a congenial atmosphere for a fair poll.

He saidif the BNP-Jamaat coalition assumes power again, they will not let the real Muslims and alems be alive.

Misbaur, who had earlier been a part of the BNP-led four-party alliance, criticised it for corruption and looting public money through syndication.