Chaitra 19, 1420 Jamadiul Sani 1, 1435 Regd. No. DA 6238 Vol 2, No 4
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION
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11 | IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?
14 | CHELSEA READY FOR PSG BATTLE
AL, BNP and JaPa ‘lose’ strongholds
ALL THAT GLITTERS IS GOLD
Smuggled gold accounts for 86% of all contraband n Syed Samiul Basher Anik,
Upazila polls throw up a few surprises n
Mohammad Al-Masum Molla
The ruling Awami League and the BNP have apparently lost their strongholds in the recently completed five phase of upazila parishad elections. The Awami league-backed contenders have demonstrated their “organisational” strength in the five divisions while the BNP and its key ally Jamaat-e-Islami retained their strength in the northern region of the country in the recently concluded upazila parishad elections. A poor picture was projected by HM Ershad’s Jatiya Party as it failed to secure a single chairman post in Ershad’s hometown Rangpur district, popularly known as stronghold of the JaPa. The party, the main opposition in the parliament, secured only three chairman posts. Interestingly, the Awami leaguebacked contenders failed to establish its supremacy in the party strongholds in Gopalganj, Habiganj, Sunamganj and
Three more times in the last three decades the country has seen upazila parishad elections, but the local body polls have never been so important. Both the ruling Awami League and the BNP-Jamaat-led alliance had their own reasons for taking these elections very seriously. After having boycotted the January 5 national elections demanding non-partisan arrangements, BNP took these elections as an opportunity to put up a display of its
NEWS ANALYSIS “nationwide popularity.” So, for the BNP and its allies, the upazila polls were an opportunity to redeem some sort of institutional representation in the country’s governance structure. For the ruling party on the other hand, upazila parishad polls were an opening on their own to prove that fair elections were possible under partisan arrangements. The good work that the Election Commission (EC) and the Awami League-led administration did by staging fair elections in the five city corporations last year could
Eighty-six percent of the total smuggled consignments that are entering the country have been identified by the customs authorities to be gold. According to information available with the Customs Intelligence, they seized a total of 240 consignments of illegal goods from July to December last year, of which 207 were gold, officials at the National Board of Revenue said quoting statistics.
some other districts and the BNP-Jamaat failed to maintain their strongholds in Lakhmipur, Satkhira, Feni, Noakhali, Chapainawabganj and some other districts where violence and irregularities marked the elections. The Jamaat-e-Islami led by convicted war criminals failed to secure a single chairman post in Dhaka division and bagged only one in Barisal division. Feni district is popularly known as the stronghold of the BNP and hometown of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia. But in the upazila elections, BNPbacked chairman candidates failed to secure a single chairman post in the six upazilas. Gopalganj, the home district of Prime Minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina, Awami League-backed chairman contenders failed to secure two chairman posts in Moksedpur and Tungipara, the hometown of Hasina.
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have been enough to quash BNP’s claims for non-partisan polls-time government. This backdrop made the upazila elections, which are essentially non-partisan in nature as parties are not allowed to contest them organisationally, a fully partisan affair with the major parties spending a lot of energy. The poor performance of the independent and the so called rebel candidates in the five phases of the local polls is also strong enough reason to reinforce the stream of thought that no election in Bangladesh can be non-partisan. Just like last year’s city polls, the ruling party and the EC could have once again cashed in on these local polls to remind people that they were good enough to stage fair polls under partisan government. But the party wasted that opportunity as its leaders and activists were largely blamed for the violence, the subsequent loss of lives and vote rigging that media portrayed vividly. Things went south for the ruling party after the first two phases of the polls when the upazila chairman candidates backed by BNP-Jamaat performed better than those blessed by the ruling party. PAGE 2 COLUMN 4
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EC blames field level officers for failure in containing polls violence Karim and n Mohosinul Mohammad Zakaria The Election Commission and the top brass of the civil administration have made conflicting statements over the allegations of negligence of field level officers in containing violence, irregularities and vote rigging during just-concluded upazila polls. Election Commissioner Md Shah Newaz held the field level officers responsible for irregularities in the upazila polls. “Field level officers did not work properly during the upazila polls. It was a chain of works as the administration and law enforcement agencies worked in the polls. It cannot be said that the commission is satisfied with holding some elections in a free and fair manner,” he told reporters yesterday. EC’s Senior Assistant Secretary Farhad Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune that the commission gave the authority to the returning officers and the local administration to take immediate action against any type of irregular-
ities. But they did not take any measures from the first phase of the polls, he added. “We did not get any allegation or information from the returning officers about the violation of electoral code of conduct and irregularities in the five-
Cabinet secretary says officers carried out duties properly phase upazila polls. The commission has asked them to take action against the allegations submitted by the candidates to the EC secretariat,” he said. Sources said the commission asked its officials to investigate some allegations which were proved later. The commission had given directives to the returning officers and the administration to take action immediately, but they did not follow the directives of the commission, they said. The commission received an alle-
gation from Gazaria upazila in Munshiganj that Awami League rebel candidate vandalised the union parishad and torched election mikes of Awami League-backed candidate Refayet Ullah Khan. As per the probe report, the commission asked the returning officer to take action, but the returning officer did not take any steps against such allegation, EC sources said. The commissioner thinks it would be better if election officials and law enforcers are not from the local administration. But the commission does not have its own officials to conduct the polls. If any irregularity took place, it was not presented to the commission on right time. So, the EC cannot take immediate action against irregularities, he said, adding that the commission asked the returning officers to take action against the allegations placed to the EC. “But we did not get any report on irregularities from the field level officers,” he said. PAGE 2 COLUMN 2
Dhaka seeks WB budget assistance for next FY n Asif Showkat Kallol The government has sought budget support from the World Bank for the next fiscal year, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said yesterday. Following a meeting with visiting World Bank Vice-President Phillippe Le Houerou at his secretariat office, the minister said although assistance has been sought, it was difficult to get budget support from the bank. The request was made to the bank at
a time when the government was preparing its budget plan for the next year. The World Bank yesterday also promised a total of $2.8bn in loans to Bangladesh for the current fiscal year, the highest ever amount in a single fiscal year. “I have asked the World Bank vice-president to evaluate the performance of Bangladesh’s budget implementation over the last five years to give budget assistance to Bangladesh,”
INSIDE News Panna Ghosh is pumped up after taking a wicket, Bangladesh Women v Sri Lanka Women, Women’s World T20, Group B, Sylhet
ICC
Bangladesh women bag maiden win n Shishir Hoque from Sylhet
Bangladesh women clinched their first ever victory in an ICC global event and ended their maiden World Twenty20 appearance on a high note by beating Sri Lanka by 3 runs in their exciting last Group B match at the Sylhet International Stadium yesterday. When the men’s team ended their campaign without a single victory yesterday, the women’s team, who just
set their feet in the international cricket arena, gave the nation a reason to cheer up with their maiden win over in the mega event.
PMO FOR ACTION
In terms of value, gold was 95% of the total smuggled items, according to information received from the Dhaka Customs House, the Chittagong Customs House and the Customs Intelligence. During the last six months of 2013, customs had seized different smuggled goods worth Tk263.38 crore, of which Tk251.41 crore was from gold smuggling, reads the statistics.
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Who gained what? n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla
Mohammad Jamil Khan and Rabiul Islam
After winning the toss for the first time in the tournament, the home side also made it past the triple figure for the first time to put up a decent total of 115 for 9 thanks to Rumana Ahmed’s career best 41. Bangladesh made count of the strong bowling unit at their disposal as Sri Lanka was restricted to 112 for 9. The victory, however, did not change Bangladesh’s position in the PAGE 2 COLUMN 2
4 The Directorate of Primary Education is working to reform the system of Primary Terminal Examination as the competency level of primary schoolchildren still remains low despite a high pass rate, officials concerned said.
Nation
6 The adverse effects of Farakka barrage, climatic change and decrease in mean annual rainfall have put four rivers in Chapainawabganj in a vulnerable condition.
Long Form
7 Haor areas of the northeastern part of Bangladesh face flash floods caused by sudden and early downstream water from the surrounding upstreams from late March to May.
Entertainment
12 A new Michael Jackson album is set for release on May 13, Epic Records announced Monday. The posthumous album called Xscape will feature eight previously recorded but unreleased songs by the “King of Pop.”
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VICE-CHAIRMAN POSTS
Jamaat in second place ahead of BNP n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla At the end of Monday’s fifth round of upazila polls, Jamaat-backed vice-chairman contenders stand clear of those backed by its ally BNP, although the latter stood second in the tally of chairman posts. Out of the 459 vice-chairman posts up for grabbing, Jamaat-backed candidates bagged 115, followed by BNP with 107, both behind Awami Leaguebacked ones, who secured 172. The right wing Islamist party – often associated with committing war crimes as an organisation in 1971 – has steadily maintained its success with regards to the vice-chairman posts since the first phase of the elections. In the first phase, contenders backed by Jamaat secured 23 vice-chairman posts, 32 in the second, 23 in the third, 22 in the fourth and 15 in the fifth. Interestingly, in the first two rounds of voting, BNP not only led the chairman tally, but also those of the vice-chairmen and vice-chairwomen. But as violence and allegations of rigging started mounting from the third phase, Awami League bounced back with more chairman posts. Simultaneously, Jamaat chipped in with more vice-chairman posts that its 18-party alliance partner. In the first phase, Awami League backed contenders bagged 29 PAGE 2 COLUMN 1