"If the conspiracy to rig the election continues, our blockade programme will culminate in a one-point mass movement for the ouster of Iajuddin," 14-party Coordinator Abdul Jalil told a press briefing at the AL's Dhanmondi office yesterday.

Earlier on November 15, AL President Sheikh Hasina postponed the blockade, considering public sufferings and the combine's confidence in the talks with advisers. She gave the chief adviser four more days to prove what she said was his neutrality.

Meanwhile, the 14-party line-up from a rally at city's Muktangan yesterday threatened to lay siege to the Bangabhaban in the event of the president not conceding the demands that the former leader of the opposition submitted on October 30.

Briefing the newsmen, Jalil, also general secretary of AL, said only 24 hours are left for Iajuddin to meet the demands that include among others reconstitution of the Election Commission (EC). If he fails to carry out the proposals "aimed at creating an atmosphere conducive to free and fair conduct of the election" by this time, the countrymen will have to go on with the blockade programme for the third time.

The plot thickens due to the dilly-dallying tactics of the president, the AL leader alleged.

He observed, "He [Iajuddin] is still trying to keep intact the BNP-Jamaat's blueprint for election engineering. By taking measures to announce the election schedule without even initiating steps to reconstitute the Election Commission, he is in fact trying to hamper the electoral and democratic process."

The president is dragging his feet despite knowing well that the blockade will start again on Monday, Jalil said adding that public patience is wearing thin with his indifference to the 11-point demand.

He said if the AL and its allies are compelled to take up the agitation, the chief adviser, chief election commissioner (CEC), three other election commissioners, and the bureaucrats working for BNP-Jamaat will have to shoulder the responsibility.

Jalil warned that the situation would turn even more volatile if the four-party alliance does not desist from backing CEC MA Aziz and the politically appointed election commissioners.

"Anxious about having to suffer an election debacle, the BNP-Jamaat coalition has been pushing the country towards violent confrontations," he added.

The 14-party coordinator alleged that the immediate past ruling coalition has long been conspiring to hold a 'blueprint election' like that of 15 February 1996. They have been relentless in their efforts to that end, as they know that the people will reject them in the upcoming election for their "massive corruption, misrule and plundering of public wealth" over the last five years, he said.

Different socio-cultural organisations, members of the civil society and the people from across the political spectrum are united today in their call for the EC reconstitution.

Even the European Parliament has rejected the controversial EC and expressed concern over inclusion of 1.30 crore fake voters. It has called on the president to reconstitute the EC and correct the grossly flawed voter list, Jalil noted.

It shows that the BNP-Jamaat coalition and its stooges in Iajuddin and Aziz are hated even by different international quarters, he added.

The AL general secretary urged the people to stay alert to attempts to hold a one-party election or foil the polls.

He said although the president had declared that he would depoliticise the administration, his activities say something else. The government orders cancelling the contractual appointments have not yet been implemented and those officials are still holding their posts with the blessings of some invisible forces, he added.

"We have learnt that if the BNP and Jamaat fail to have their plot executed by President Iajuddin, they might replace him with Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar," Jalil said adding that Iajuddin has been kept at a "don't move" position.

"We will continue our movement until the Election Commission is reconstituted, the controversial CEC and the three election commissioners are removed and the voter list is corrected," he said.

Jalil said although the four advisers have drawn up a set of recommendations regarding the EC reconstitution in consultation with different political parties, the chief adviser seems to have no time for them. Instead, he has been holding meetings with the controversial CEC and his deputies in a hasty move to declare the election schedule, he added.

He said the council of advisers to the caretaker government has been kept at a distance from the election related works.

All programmes marking the Armed Forces Day on November 21 will remain outside the purview of blockade, Jalil announced.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Hasina's Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad yesterday dismissed as rumours the news that the former leader of the opposition had been invited to Bangabhaban for talks with the president last night.

He described the airing of the news by different private television channels as provocative and misleading.

Among others, senior leaders Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, Obaidul Quader, Rashed Khan Menon, Abdur Rahman, Sultan Mohammad Mansur Ahmed, Abdul Mannan, Nurul Islam, Pankaj Bhattacharya and Dilip Barua were present at the press briefing.