Archive for December 31st, 2008
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia early today said Monday's general election was stage-managed and farcical, and so its results are not acceptable to her party."By declaring pre-set results, the Election Commission (EC) has shown the polls did not reflect the public opinion," she said.The former prime minister was reading out a statement at a press conference at her Gulshan office minutes after midnight.Earlier, she had a four-hour meeting with the party's standing committee members.Khaleda said there is no instance of such a 'massive ballot rigging' that took place on December 29."At first I want to thank the chief election commissioner ...
(read more) Wednesday, December 31st, 2008It is a shock-and-awe rout for the BNP, once a mighty party.In unofficial election results, the BNP was wiped out of two divisions, including its stronghold Dhaka. It finished up with only 27 seats -- the party's lowest ever score.Similrary, the party for the first time failed to obtain any of the 19 parliamentary seats in Sylhet division while it suffered a crisis in strongholds of Rajshahi and Chittagong divisions.The landslide victory of the Awami League-led grand alliance that boasts 261 seats -- the highest score bagged by an electoral alliance since the restoration of parliamentary democracy, also ...
(read more) Wednesday, December 31st, 2008The Awami League-led grand alliance secured 262 seats in Monday's 9th Jatiya Sangsad election outplaying the BNP-led four-party combine that got only 32, according to unofficial results of 299 constituencies available yesterday.The AL bagged 230 seats while its ally Jatiya Party (Ershad) got 27, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) three and Workers Party two seats.The BNP won 29 seats while its key four-party ally Jamaat-e-Islami saw its once-proud seat tally plummet to a humiliating two from 17 in 2001 in what appears to be a wholesale rejection of the party by the voters.Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP), another component of the ...
(read more) Wednesday, December 31st, 2008BNP is made to pay dearly for its five years of mal-governance As we celebrate the majesty of public will and try to understand the stunning results of the national election 2008, the real question that needs to be asked is not why Awami League won so comprehensively, but why BNP got the thrashing that it did.Given our anti-incumbency history and the pattern so far followed since 1991, it can be considered somewhat natural that Awami League should get a turn to run the country in 2008, after BNP did so 2001.What however is not explainable by the ...
(read more) Wednesday, December 31st, 2008From businessmen to homemakers, the general people now expect that Awami League (AL) while forming the new government would demonstrate how it would keep its pledge by bringing a 'change.'While talking to The Daily Star, they said one of the first vital indications of 'change' would be the formation of the cabinet, dropping all the 'old faces' except for successful former agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury, and putting new, honest and competent people in charge of various ministries.None of them should be given the charge of any ministry as political reward.Another early vital indication would be how the AL prevents ...
(read more) Wednesday, December 31st, 2008A special team of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) recovered 28 improvised grenades in the port city last evening and held two operatives of JMB who tried to kill BNP chief Khaleda Zia in Comilla on December 23.The arrestees of the banned Islamist outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) are Masum Bin Abdul Hye alias Abu Saleh, 30, and Khorshed, 40.Masum claimed to be a member of the JMB killing squad that attempted to kill former prime minister and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia at a four-party rally in Chandina, Comilla, on December 23.According to sources, the Rab team around 6:00pm raided ...
(read more) Wednesday, December 31st, 2008Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina yesterday said her party will work in unison with the opposition in parliament to strengthen democracy and develop the nation, true to the pledges that won the AL-led grand alliance a thumping majority in Monday's polls.She made the observations at a meeting with a delegation of the United Nations election observers at her Sudha Sadan residence in Dhanmondi.Quoting her, HT Imam, co-chairman of the AL election conduct committee, told reporters that the AL chief wants cooperation from the opposition parties in efforts to take the nation forward.The UN mission chief said they would ...
(read more) Wednesday, December 31st, 2008Two separate metropolitan magistrate courts in Dhaka yesterday framed charges indicting five people who were arrested on charges of violating code of electoral conduct during the polling in Dhaka on December 29.The magistrates sent the accused to jail and fixed January 5, 2009 for deposition with rejecting the bail prayers in the cases. The accused are Eklas, Md Kamrul Hasan, Harunur Rashid, Shahabuddin and Abdur Rahim.Metropolitan magistrate Abdur Rahim arrested Eklas, Md Kamrul Hasan, Harunur Rashid and Shahabuddin from the polling centre of Kaliganj Government Primary School at Keraniganj on charges of campaigning for four-party alliance candidate being fake polling ...
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