In January 2007, President Iajuddin Ahmed declared a state of emergency in Bangladesh amidst violent street protests over feared vote-rigging in the run-up to planned elections. A military-backed interim government ruled Bangladesh for most of the next two years on a platform aimed at cleaning up the country's democratic institutions through an ambitious anti-corruption program. The military takeover in Bangladesh capped a decade of "good governance" coups in South and Southeast Asia, where militaries justified their interventions on the basis of widespread frustration with incompetent and corrupt political leaders. Two other prominent examples were Pakistan and Thailand. General Pervez Musharraf came to power in Pakistan in 1999, after deposing Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, who led an unpopular government marred by graft and ineffective governance. In 2006, the Thai military pushed President Thaksin Shinawatra into exile amidst street demonstrations over the President's allegedly heavy-handed rule, vote-buying, and improper sale of his telecommunications company.