"The old leadership will not work, new ones should be promoted to lead the political parties to serve the people," said Dr M Ataur Rahman, chairman of the Centre for Governance Studies and a resource person at the course.

The political parties only want to go to power and cling to it, but the leaders should change such attitude for the sake of democracy and people, he said at a press conference after the daylong course.

Forty mid-level leaders of BNP, Awami League, Jamaat-e-Islami and Jatiya Party (Ershad) took part in the course titled 'Leadership Development Course'.

Areas covered in the course included democracy and leadership, local electoral analysis and local message development, ways to win elections and mechanism of democracy.

Political leaders should promote tolerance and stop blaming their rivals in and out of parliament, said Dr Ataur.

He also called on the old leadership to refrain from blocking ways for the young leaders.

Replying to a question, NDI Country Director Owen P Lippert said, "Jamaat is quite a democratically organised party."

Deborah Healy, NDI senior programme manager, Hamish Marshall, former electoral analyst of Office of the Leader of the Opposition in Canada, and Lincoln Mitchell, a New York-based political consultant, conducted the course.

NDI has been working in Bangladesh for the last 10 years to strengthen democracy.