JULHAS ALAM

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - Riot police used batons and tear gas Tuesday against thousands of stone-throwing protesters who tried to march in Bangladesh's capital to press for election reforms and the resignation of the country's top election officials.

The clashes came when demonstrators tried to overrun barbed-wire police barricades around the Election Commission headquarters in northern Dhaka, according to local newspaper reporter Shariful Islam.

Associated Press reporters on the scene estimated there were about 7,000 protesters.

Police put up the barricades after a 14-party opposition alliance asked its supporters to converge on the commission's heavily guarded office, a police official said. Several people were injured, the official said on condition of anonymity due to policy.

Senior opposition leader Mohammad Nasim, who is also a former home minister, alleged that police with batons charged into his Dhaka residence after some supporters took shelter there during the clash.

Police said they had to enter his home because the protesters had started throwing stones at them.

Authorities deployed more than 6,000 security forces, who closed roads around the election office. The closures and violence caused huge traffic snarls in parts of the city of 10 million.

Clashes were also reported in the central Bangladesh city of Mymensingh, and in southern Bagerhat district, TV channel ATN Bangla reported. It said more than 50 people were injured in those places.

The alliance accuses Chief Election Commissioner M.A. Aziz and his two deputies of being loyal to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's government, and of trying to help ensure its victory in the next election, due in January 2007.

It alleges the commission compiled a new electoral roll that excludes many known opposition supporters as voters.

Aziz has denied the allegations and vowed to make the polls free and fair.

"We are an independent constitutional body. We have taken a vow to remain neutral and we shall remain so," Aziz told reporters Monday.

The opposition has held a series of strikes and street protests in recent months, trying to force Zia's resignation and demanding an early election as well as election commission reforms.

Zia has vowed to stay in power until her five-year term expires in October, when she is constitutionally required to hand over power to a neutral caretaker administration that will supervise the polls.

The opposition alliance has vowed to boycott the election unless it gets a role in the appointment of the caretaker administration and election officials.