The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is hoping the alliance will help it boost its support and move on after a series of setbacks, including the jailing of its leader
Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...
for corruption in February and the sentencing of exiled acting leader, her son, last week.
The Jatiya Oikya Front (United National Front) was formally announced in the Bangladeshi capital late on Saturday after months of negotiations among opposition parties.
Kamal Hossain, a former foreign minister and an eminent lawyer who drafted the secular constitution just after independence in 1971, has emerged as the main leader.
"There is no alternative to a free and fair election," Hossain told a press briefing late on Saturday.
The new alliance issued a seven-point list of demands including the dissolution of parliament and the holding of free and fair polls organised by an interim government.
"The launch of the Jatiya Oikya Front will go down in history as a turning point," senior BNP leader and former law minister Moudud Ahmed told news hounds.