The Awami League is planning to keep the BNP-led alliance busy in local-level polls so that it could not wage street agitation, a policy which could give the Sheikh Hasina’s government a breathing space in consolidating its authority to stabilise the economy.
As part of the plan the elections to 64 district councils will follow the upazila polls, the AL policymakers have decided. The local government ministry has already initiated procedures for asking the EC to hold the district council polls, ministry officials said.
With a view to luring the grassroots leaders of the BNP-Jamaat into electoral politics, the government has requested the Election Commission to hold the polls to 487 upazilas, to be held between February 19 and March 31, in five phases.
Soon after the EC’s announcement, the BNP-led alliance declared that they would contest the upazila elections.
After AL’s assuming office, the EC arranged the upazila elections in 2009 – for the first time after 1990 – that cemented its position at the grassroots. The BNP-led alliance had boycotted the polls giving the AL leaders a walkover.
According to the law, the local government ministry will have to ask the EC to hold elections to the expired upazila councils, providing necessary information.
Without the ministry’s letter, the commission cannot hold the upazila polls with its own initiative. The tenure of the upazila council is five years.
“Elections to the expired local government bodies will take place [in time]; the Election Commission will hold the polls,” Matia Chowdhury, an AL Presidium Member and agriculture minister, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, an organising secretary of the ruling party, told the Dhaka Tribune that the BNP-led alliance had come to “realise that violence could in no way bring them political benefits.”
“So, they will be in the electoral race instead of so-called agitation and violence on the street,” he said.
The BNP, he said, came to realise that the trend of “totally boycotting the polls” in future would further aggravate the frustration of its grassroots leaders.
Another presidium member, Kazi Zafarullah, told the Dhaka Tribune: “The main challenge we confronted is to hold the national elections; we have overcome it.
“They [BNP] have come to the upazila polls and will contest the other [local government] polls in future. In that case, they will have no option left other than participating in the elections,” he observed.
The first phase of polls to 98 upazilas will take place on February 19 and 24; the second phase (117 upazila councils) on February 27 and the third phase (83) on March 15.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
HASINA’S “ILLEGAL” PARLIAMENT A DOLL-HOUSE, & RIGHTLY SO
CURRENT ONE PARTY GOVERNMENT AND THE PARLIAMENT OF HASINA THAT HAS BEEN FORMED AFTER A FARCICAL BANGLA “ELECTION” WHERE MOST OF THE CANDIDATES WERE DECLARED ELECTED UNCONTESTED ONE MONTH BEFORE THE “ELECTION” AND ONLY 5-7% ELECTORATES VOTED IN THIS FARCICAL “ELECTION”HAS BEEN NAMED AS “A DOLL-HOUSE” BY THE 19 PARTY ALLIANCE. EVEN CANDIDATES WHO WITHDREW THEIR NOMINATION IN TIME WERE DECLARED ELECTED, SUCH AS THE HEAD OF THE J.P. GENERAL ERSHAD AND MANY OTHERS! IN THE ABSENCE OF ANY OPPOSITION, ONE PARTNER OF THIS COALITION GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN DECLARED AS “THE PARTY OF THE OPPOSITION”. ANY CIVILISED WORLD HAS NOT EVEN WITNESSED SUCH ABSURDITY IN THE Name of “democratic parliamentary GOVERNMENT ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD”. AND THE 87% OF THE PEOPLE REPRESENTING THE 19 PARTY ALLIANCE THAT BOYCOTTED THIS “ELECTION” ARE ORDERED TO RECOGNISE THIS “DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED GOVERNMENT” ELSE THEY WOULD BE ARRESTED AND TRIED IN A COURT ON CHARGE OF SEDITION & BEGUM KHALEDA, TWICE ELECTED PRIME MINISTER OF THE COUNTRY, NOW LEADING THE ROBUST 19 PARTY ALLIANCE WOULD BE TOPPING THE LIST OF POTENTIAL SEDITIOUS “CRIMINALS” AS DECLARED BY HASINA, “ WHO HAS REBELLED AGAINST NOT HASINA & HER DEMOCRATIC CIRCUS BUT “AGAINST THE STATE”! The demarcation between a party/coalition government and the “STATE” has long been discarded by Hasina, a new innovation in “WESTMINSTER STYLE PARLIAMENARY DEMOCRACY”! – Anwar Hussain Biswas, Dhaka:08.02.14.—————————–
BNP standing committee member Rafiqul Islam Miah on Saturday alleged that parliament has been turned into a ‘dollhouse’ through the January 5 national election.“Some dolls, not people’s representatives, were elected through the January 5 polls. With these dolls, parliament has become a dollhouse,” he said.Addressing a discussion at the Jatiya Press club, the BNP leader said people will not allow the current regime to stay in office with these dolls.Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Karmajibi Dala organised the programme titled ‘Extrajudicial killing, basic rights and the national election’.Disapproving the ruling party leaders’ remarks that BNP missed the election train, the BNP leader said, “It was not the election train, but a train of passengers from doll house. Had BNP boarded the train the number of doll house passengers would have increased but democracy got killed.”Rafiqul said the government deceived people by holding a farcical election on January 5.He also claimed that most countries in the world did not accept the 10th parliamentary polls and recognise the current government.The BNP leader urged the government to take sincere steps for resolving the political crisis through holding a fresh election.He urged BNP leaders and activists not to get frustrated and wage a strong movement with a fresh vigor to force the government to hold free, fair and inclusive national elections. http://www.UNBConnect.com/ bdchronicle/www.MNA/www.com/www.samachar.com Dhaka:.February 8, 2014.