Bangladesh News

Election Commission rushes to set poll day Jan 21

Tuesday, November 28th, 2006In a surreptitious and hasty move threatening to pitch the country into further political turmoil, the Election Commission (EC) yesterday announced the schedule for the next parliamentary election, setting January 21 as the polling day. The EC Secretariat issued a gazette notification to that effect at 10:00am, urging the electors to choose a member from each of the 300 constituencies to constitute the ninth parliament.The announcement from the EC now headed by controversial acting Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice Mahfuzur Rahman followed a consultation with President/Chief Adviser Iajuddin Ahmed late at night Sunday.Most of the advisers to the ... (read more)

Man with political goal made one of 2 ECs

Tuesday, November 28th, 2006The president yesterday appointed two new election commissioners -- one of them aspired to be a candidate of the four-party alliance from Habiganj-2 (Ajmiriganj-Baniachang) constituency while the other has no illustrious background.New Election Commissioner Modabbir Hossain Chowdhury is a former inspector general of police (IGP) and secretary and was an aspirant BNP candidate.The other new Election Commissioner Saiful Alam served in the lower judiciary as a judge for a long time and later served as a director general in the Anti-Corruption Commission.Following the two new election commissioners' appointment by President Iajuddin Ahmed in the morning, the chief justice ... (read more)

Advisers kept in the dark

Tuesday, November 28th, 2006Advisers to the caretaker government (CG) fired a broadside at President and Chief Adviser Iajuddin Ahmed yesterday over his apparent retreat from a promise to consult them before the appointment two more election commissioners and announcement of the schedule for next general elections by the Election Commission (EC)."We were not aware of the announcement of election schedule," Information Adviser and spokesman for the council of advisers Mahbubul Alam told reporters emerging from a weekly meeting of the council at the CA's office.The advisers expressed their utter displeasure at the two decisions at the meeting that saw hurling of heated ... (read more)

Eminent citizens surprised

Tuesday, November 28th, 2006Advisers to the former caretaker governments, retired bureaucrats, academicians, jurists and eminent citizens of the country yesterday expressed their surprise at the announcement of election schedule without addressing a number of critical issues for holding a free, fair and credible election.Before announcing the schedule, the Election Commission (EC) should have discussed the matter with major political parties. But the announcement came following pressure from a certain political group. As a result, the rival parties rejected the schedule outright, they observed.Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, after the announcement of the schedule, they said to make the election acceptable to ... (read more)

EC’s time constraint claim belies reality

Tuesday, November 28th, 2006In defence of the hurriedly announced election schedule, the Election Commission (EC) came up with the excuse of constraint of time, but it allocated more time for different stages of the electoral process compared to the length of time that had been allocated for the same stages during previous elections. The EC kept a highest 55 days gap between the day of announcement of the election schedule and the day of polling while the gap had been 42 days in 2001 election and 45 days in 1996 election.A day after the filing of a writ petition with the High ... (read more)

Advisers move to reopen Ctg container terminal

Tuesday, November 28th, 2006The council of advisers of caretaker government yesterday discussed the issue of deadlock at the Chittagong Container Terminal (CCT) and did not find any valid reason to cancel the agreement with the private company to operate the gantry cranes. The council decided to send the chairman of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) as an envoy of the government to request the Chittagong city mayor to withdraw his agitation programme and reopen the terminal that has been sitting idle for over two weeks, according to sources.Shipping Adviser Azizul Haque said after the meeting that he does not find any reason for cancelling ... (read more)