Former Bangladeshi prime minister Khaleda Zia has begun a cross-country trip with thousands of her supporters to call for new elections.

Ms. Zia left the capital, Dhaka, on Monday in a convoy of at least 1,000 vehicles for the 200-kilometer trip to the city of Sylhet in northeastern Bangladesh.

She is expected to address at least six rallies along the route, as she continues demands for elections to take place under a caretaker government.

The Bangladeshi parliament approved a constitutional amendment earlier this scrapping a system of holding national elections under a non-partisan caretaker government. Lawmakers from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling Awami League party approved the change in a vote boycotted by Ms. Zia's Bangladeshi Nationalist party.

Opposition members accuse Ms. Hasina of amending the constitution to keep her party in power through fraud, rather than allowing non-partisan technocrats to oversee elections.

Politics in Bangladesh has been dominated for two decades by a violent rivalry between Ms. Zia and Ms. Hasina, who have often traded corruption charges and organized massive protests when in opposition.