Archive for December 15th, 2008
Monday, December 15th, 2008Candidates of the grand alliance's Awami League and Jatiya Party are set to fight each other in at least 11 constituencies, shows the final list of runners published by the Election Commission (EC) yesterday.The seats are in addition to the three that the alliance has set aside for the AL and JP contestants to battle it out.Similarly, BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, components of the four-party alliance, both have candidates in at least two constituencies.Islami Oikya Jote, another member of the four-party alliance, will compete against BNP and Jamaat candidates for two seats.The immediate past ruling coalition has by consensus ...
(read more) Monday, December 15th, 2008The two electoral alliances led by the Awami League (AL) and the BNP have for the first time picked a number of fresh less known persons as their candidates for city constituencies in the upcoming parliamentary elections.The two alliances faced difficulties in finding suitable candidates as many of their former lawmakers are either convicted or have been fugitive since declaration of the state of emergency. Increase in the number of constituencies from 8 to 15 in the capital is also another reason for the crisis of candidates.Under the circumstances both the AL and BNP have even had to hire a ...
(read more) Monday, December 15th, 2008The election manifesto of BNP that Khaleda Zia presented on Saturday has a waft of promises for a wide spectrum of sectors. But it lacks accountable and specific targets, and leaves the question of resource mobilisation unsolved.It too has set curbing of inflation as a prime task, but the ways to tame it are weakly mentioned.It rightly focuses on development of small and medium enterprises (SME) and proposes a raft of measures, some vague and some specific. The strategy it wants to follow is enhancement of food production by subsidising agricultural inputs and stocking up food.But the proposition ...
(read more) Monday, December 15th, 2008The mourning procession commemorating martyred intellectuals paraded through Dhaka University campus with rickshaw-pullers passing by singing the national anthem and flag-hawkers in solemn silence following intellectuals, teachers, students, artists, cultural activists and journalists.As the procession ended at fine arts institute some rickshaw-pullers and flag-hawkers joined the crowd and raised hands together making a vow to boycott the war criminals in the upcoming election and bring them to justice."We have taken an oath in the name of all martyrs of our long liberation struggles; in the name of the soil, water and air of Bangladesh; in the name of the child ...
(read more) Monday, December 15th, 2008Businessman Azam J Chowdhury will discontinue the extortion case he filed against Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina and her cousin Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim about one and a half years back.He already submitted an application to the home ministry yesterday, seeking an executive order for withdrawal of the case through the court concerned.Speaking at a press briefing at his Gulshan office at around 11:00am, he said, “The case against Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Selim was filed due to some misunderstanding in the adverse circumstances prevailing at that time.”Azam, managing director of East Coast Trading Ltd, termed the filing ...
(read more) Monday, December 15th, 2008Chief Adviser (CA) Fakhruddin Ahmed yesterday directed top civil bureaucrats to discharge their duties with total neutrality in order to present the nation with a free, fair and credible election which will reflect public opinion."We want to be partners in an election that will set an example," said the head of the caretaker administration in his farewell address to the secretaries at the Cabinet Division of Bangladesh Secretariat in the capital.He firmly expects that the secretaries will achieve 100 percent success in the tough test and will extend all out cooperation to the Election Commission (EC) in holding the 9th ...
(read more) Monday, December 15th, 2008Renowned economists of the country yesterday said the electoral manifesto of BNP touches all aspects of economic problems but lacks any time-bound strategic plan to solve those.They termed BNP's giving prominence to economic issues, like the Awami League (AL), praiseworthy in these challenging times.BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia announced her party's election manifesto on Saturday. Earlier on Friday, Awami League President Sheikh Hasina unveiled her party's polls manifesto.M Hafizuddin Khan, former finance and planning adviser to a caretaker government, told The Daily Star that it would have been better if the BNP spelt out timeframes and manners to solve economic problems ...
(read more) Monday, December 15th, 2008BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday urged people to foil all conspiracies by voting for four-party alliance candidates in the upcoming national polls. She blamed the caretaker government for hatching conspiracies to make the country a failed state."We need to form an effective parliament and work together to make Bangladesh a strong state," she said addressing different rallies on her second day of election campaigns outside the capital.The former premier yesterday addressed at least 10 election rallies on her way to Jessore from Dhaka. She is on a two-day tour of southern Bangladesh. She is to campaign in Jessore, Khulna ...
(read more) Monday, December 15th, 2008A vested interest group is distributing three types of leaflets among villagers of Thakurgaon-1 constituency using religious sentiments to apparently persuade Muslim voters to vote against Awami League-led grand alliance candidate Ramesh Chandra Sen.The leaflets--one containing verses from the Quran and their translation, another a parody of a popular song and the other a few short Bangla verses, bear the name of Bangladesh Muslim League presidium member M Shamsul Haque.The leaflet titled "Al-Quraner Bani" (teachings of the Quran) quotes different verses and clearly asks Muslims not to cast votes for a non-Muslim candidate in the December 29 parliamentary elections.The leaflet ...
(read more) Monday, December 15th, 2008The Council of Advisers of the caretaker government yesterday approved the Emergency Powers Repeal Ordinance 2008 to lift the state of emergency declared on January 11, 2007 in the wake of political turmoil.In pursuance of a prior government declaration, the annulment of the emergency ordinance will be effective from December 17, in the run-up to the December 29 national elections.A meeting of the council of advisers with Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed in the chair also approved a proposal for complete withdrawal of the state of emergency.In the meantime, the caretaker government has repealed section-3 of the emergency power rules ...
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