DHAKA: Bangladesh's major parties on Saturday called for the early restoration of democracy as the country's military-backed emergency government completed its first year in power.

The Awami League, whose boycott of last year's polls led to the imposition of emergency rule and installation of the interim government on Jan 12, 2007, has demanded general elections be held by July.

“The emergency government is fast losing popularity so it should lift the emergency, start dialogue with the major parties, hold polls and hand over power to an elected government,” acting Awami League president Zillur Rahman said.

“The election commission said the voters' list should be prepared by June this year. So it's our demand that the elections be held by late June or early July,” he added.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which led the country's last elected government, also demanded the quick restoration of democracy at a press conference in the capital Dhaka.

“The government should hold polls as early as possible and hand over power to a civilian elected government,” Rizvi Ahmed, a senior BNP leader said.

The parties also sought the release of their leaders who they say “have been detained in false and fabricated cases”.

The military government was sworn in a day after president Iajuddin Ahmed imposed emergency rule and cancelled polls after the Awami League accused the BNP of trying to rig elections.

Some 150 top leaders, including Awami League chief and ex-premier Sheikh Hasina Wajed and BNP leader and two-times ex-premier Khaleda Zia, have been arrested by the government on charges of corruption.

At least 52 top figures have already been jailed by anti-graft courts.

The government, headed by former central bank governor Fakhruddin Ahmed, has pledged polls by the end of the year after it pushes through major political and electoral reforms.

Although the reforms and the anti-graft crackdown brought initial cheers for the government, its popularity has slipped amid record-high inflation, uncertainty over the political process and a sharp slowdown of economic growth.

“The emergency government should hold polls early as people are losing patience with the government,” said political analyst Talukder Moniruzzaman.

“Already a year has gone by and the government's popularity is eroding fast,” said Moniruzzaman, a political science professor at Dhaka University.

“Some sort of reconciliation is needed since a big question remains whether the major parties will take part in the elections with their top leaders detained in corruption cases,” Moniruzzaman added.

The imposition of the emergency ended 16 years of democratic rule, led alternately by Zia and Hasina Wajed.

Both leaders, were blamed for widespread graft and the country was ranked as the world's most-corrupt nation by Transparency International during their tenures.

The government launched a series of reforms in February including the reconstitution of the election commission and the anti-corruption commission as well as the separation of the judiciary from executive control.

But Amnesty International said earlier this week that the government had failed to protect human rights and hold itself accountable over its anti-graft drive since taking power a year ago.

“Our most important concerns are the persistence of impunity and that major human rights violations are not investigated,” Amnesty secretary general Irene Khan said.

“Then there is the issue of failures in protecting human rights over the past year,” she said, adding that she had heard accounts of abuse of power, arbitrary detention and mistreatment from victims.—AFP