Archive for January 24th, 2009
Saturday, January 24th, 2009Widely reported claims of upazila election observers and also the Election Commission (EC) that voter turnout was low in Thursday's polls, are not substantiated by the result sheets disclosed so far.The Daily Star managed to collect the data of the result sheets of 183 upazila parishads from the EC Secretariat till 5.30pm yesterday as the commission officials were able to disclose only those till that time.In the 183 upazilas out of a total of 475 in which elections were held, the total number of voters was 2,85,63,175 while 1,94,17,490 of them cast their votes, making the rate of ...
(read more) Saturday, January 24th, 2009Over a half of the total 8,090 candidates in the just concluded upazila parishad elections lost their security deposits due to dismal performances, and almost all of them did not get any major political party's backing.The results show most of the winning candidates who are now entitled to refunds of their security deposits, were also backed by either of the two major political parties -- Awami League (AL) and BNP, although the elections were non-partisan according to the law.The electoral law stipulates that a candidate must secure a minimum of one-eighth of the total votes cast for a ...
(read more) Saturday, January 24th, 2009A national taskforce blames Chinese telecom vendor Huawei for supplying substandard equipment and its failure to complete within deadline any of the government's three telecom projects involving around $40 million.But Huawei got away with the substandard equipment supply and delay in project implementation between 2002 and 2007 by "managing" the BTTB high officials concerned. The company influenced the top officials by offering different illegal benefits including recruiting their family members to lucrative posts and trips to China.The taskforce in its probe report strongly recommends blacklisting the Chinese telecom giant and penalising it for substandard and unethical business practices. It also ...
(read more) Saturday, January 24th, 2009Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is annoyed with a minister and some lawmakers for tainting the government's image by meddling in Thursday's upazila elections, said sources in her party.In breach of the electoral rules, Fisheries and Livestock Minister Abdul Latif Biswas and Awami League (AL) lawmaker Abdur Rahman Bodi interfered in the polls in Belkuchi upazila of Sirajganj and Teknaf of Cox's Bazar.Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury said, “What they [Latif and Bodi] have done is an embarrassment to the government. This was never expected."Also an AL presidium member, she said the EC has every ...
(read more) Saturday, January 24th, 2009A case was filed against Awami League lawmaker from Cox's Bazar-4 constituency Abdur Rahman Bodi Thursday night accusing him of violating electoral code of conduct and beating up assistant presiding officers at a polling centre during upazila polls.Gias Uddin, assistant presiding officer of Sufia Community Primary School polling centre at Fulerdeil village under Teknaf Upazila, lodged the case with Teknaf Police Station.However, Bodi denied all allegations against him and said a vested group campaigns against him to tarnish the image of the government. “I only visited the polling centres. Why did I beat election officials?”In the case statement, ...
(read more) Saturday, January 24th, 2009Shakib Al Hasan celebrated his ascent in the rankings with another all-round performance as Bangladesh won the fog-curtailed third and final one-day match against Zimbabwe by six wickets to clinch the series 2-1 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.Recovering from a shocking two-wicket defeat in the first game, the Tigers bounced back strongly in the series thanks to a determined effort from the bowlers and there was no exception in the series-deciding third game as they restricted Zimbabwe for 119-9 after the match was reduced to 37-overs-a-side, due to dense fog in the morning.Man-of-the-series Shakib, who ...
(read more) Saturday, January 24th, 2009The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) will start distributing the plots under Uttara Model Town third phase from June this year, instead of this month, as 20 percent work of land filling is still incomplete.Missing its previous deadline, the Rajuk tried to extend the project time by one more year and has already got approval in principle in this regard from the housing and public works ministry, said an official.Project Director of Uttara third phase Nurul Islam said they would start handing over plots from June and try to hand over all plots within this year. "We have already done 80 ...
(read more) Saturday, January 24th, 2009At least three people were killed and sixty-five others injured in post upazila polls violence across the country yesterday.Our Faridpur correspondent reports: Awami League (AL) activist Akkas Matubbar, 50, of Patpasha village at Saltha upazila in Faridpur was beaten to death by rivals from within the party.Witnesses said at around 7.00am when Akkas was going to his agriculture field, a group of supporters of rebel AL candidate Imamul Hossain defeated in the just-concluded upazila polls attacked him with lethal weapons leaving him dead on the spot and ten others injured.Akkas was a supporter of AL candidate Delwar Hossain who ...
(read more) Saturday, January 24th, 2009The country was covered with dense fog disrupting normal life and affecting launches and ferry services and other vehicles, especially inter-district buses yesterday.The weather started deteriorating from Thursday afternoon when breeze coupled with dense fog swept over most places of the country decreasing visibility and forcing the vehicles to ply with their headlights on during the day.Ferry services in Paturia-Daulatdia and Paturia-Kazirhat routes were disrupted for 11 hours, from 11:00pm Thursday to Friday 10:00am, due to dense fog for the second consecutive day.Two ferries loaded with passenger transports were forced to anchor in the middle of the river during that ...
(read more) Saturday, January 24th, 2009BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain yesterday said people's expectations were not reflected in upazila elections that witnessed 'a continuation of vote rigging.'"People's right to vote is under threat and now they can understand what happened in the December 29 elections," he said at a discussion at the party's city unit office in the capital's Naya Paltan.Jatiyatabadi Muktijoddha Dal organised the discussion on the occasion of 73rd birth anniversary of party's founder late president Ziaur Rahman.Pointing finger at Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina, Delwar said they (Awami League) accept election results when they win and rejects it ...
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