DHAKA Relatives of leading Bangladeshi politicians hope to make the forthcoming general election a family affair by standing for election to Parliament, according to AFP.

Both Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed and opposition leader Khaleda Zia expect several family members to be on the lists of candidates in the polls which will take place by October, party sources and newspapers reports said this week.

Traditionally, politics in Bangladesh has been a family concern.

Sheikh Hasina, who leads the Awami League, is the daughter of Bangladesh's founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, while Zia, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), is the wife of former president and BNP founder Ziaur Rahman, who was assassinated in an failed military coup in 1981.

When her five-year term ends in mid-July, the prime minister must hand over power to a caretaker government which will then organize general elections for the 300-seat Parliament by October.

Already several of her cousins are members of Parliament, including Health Minister Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Parliament Chief Whip Abul Hasnat Abdullah, Sheikh Helal Uddin and Nur-e-Alam Chowdhury Liton.

The next election could also see her uncle, former army chief General Mustafizur Rahman, her cousin Bahauddin Nasim and her daughter's father-in-law Khandaker Musharraf Hossain join the fray, the **** Prothom Alo Daily **** newspaper said.

Local press reported that Zia's elder son, Tareq Rahman, could contest the election in his father's home district of Bogra in the north of the country.

Rahman, a businessman, has in recent months become more involved with his mother's political activities.

Zia's sister Khurshid Jahan Huq is already a BNP MP, while her brother Syed Iskander, a retired army major, and her nephew Sharin Islam, may also try their luck, according to the press reports.

Officials of both parties said the list of candidates had not yet been finalized.

A number of other retired army officers, bureaucrats and professionals were also seeking nominations from the two major political parties of Bangladesh, political sources said.

Leading television and cinema stars may additionally seek nominations, mostly from the Awami League.

Meanwhile the Astrologers Society, which held a regional meeting in Dhaka this week, said Bangladesh would face foul weather this year.

Despite the bad weather, elections would go ahead, with lawlessness increasing, astrologers from India, Nepal and Bangladesh said after their conference.

They forecast that the current ruling party would do better than in the last elections in 1996, AFP reported.