DHAKA: A leading non-government organisation in Bangladesh said on Monday it is launching a new political party with a mission to restore democracy and reduce poverty.

Proshika, which boasts of being Bangladesh’s biggest NGO, will formally launch the new party, the United Citizens Movement (UCM), later this week, Proshika chairman Qazi Faruque Ahmed told reporters on Monday.

“Poor labourers, professionals, women and freedom fighters are the blood and basic strength of our new political platform,” he said. “The principal aims of the UCM will be to fight for the rights of the poor, reduce poverty, assert basic rights and to restore democratic rule.”

Faruque’s attempt to use an NGO to launch a political party follows a similar but failed attempt to do so last year by Nobel laureate Muhammd Yunus, head of the Grameen Bank, the country’s top micro-credit agency.

Bangladeshi NGOs have tried to exploit some political space after a military-backed interim government took charge in January last year following deadly political violence, and vowed to rid politics of endemic corruption. Faruque said UCM would formally register with the Election Commission as a political party and contest the parliamentary election due on December 18.