In February 2015 it was announced that the elections scheduled for later that year, in June, would be postponed because of the unresolved conflict.
The effect of the move was to draw thousands of people away from the Democrats, who had expected to win the national elections scheduled for later in the year.
Political tensions in the country escalated when Moïse Katumbi, a provincial powerbroker and former close ally of the president, was charged hours after announcing he would run for president in elections scheduled for later in the year.
The army-backed administration took over Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation of 150 million people, in January 2007 after months of violent clashes between the rival political parties, forcing the cancellation of national elections scheduled for later that month.
In February 2009 he announced his candidacy in the presidential election set for later that year, although he reversed his decision the following month in order to strengthen the chances of Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a reformist candidate expected to have a better chance at victory.
The regional president, Artur Mas, has set early elections for later this month in the hope of consolidating his majority in anticipation of a showdown with Madrid over a referendum on regional independence.
Elections are scheduled for later in the northern Kurdish autonomous region and have been indefinitely postponed in the province around oil-rich Kirkuk, where ethnic groups could not agree on a power-sharing formula.
Elections for the National Assembly later that year produced a civilian government led by loyalists in his faction of the Muslim League.
Jeannie Layson, a spokeswoman for the commission, emphasized that the proposed guidelines, which will be finalized this month, are still only in draft form, that they would apply to only the November election and that new regulations would be devised for later elections.
The new Constitution approved in March requires extensive changes to electoral laws before a vote is held, which has led the opposition Movement for Democratic Change to push for elections later in the year.
