DHAKA – Bangladesh’s Supreme Court on Thursday restored a nonpartisan caretaker government system for national elections but said it won't apply to the polls being held early next year .

The caretaker system was introduced in 1996 and widely accepted by Bangladesh's people and by international observers as a step toward election fairness in the a parliamentary democracy of 170 million people. In two subsequent elections, two retired chief justices formed nonpartisan governments that held the elections within 90 days and transferred power to the winners. The election in 2008 was held under a former central bank governor.

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But political disputes led to the system being scrapped at the court's suggestion in 2011 under then- Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina , whose oppone

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