Thursday • January 11, 2007

N E W S   O F  T H E  H O N ' B L E  P R E S I D E N T

Russian envoy meets Sheikh Hasina

The newly appointed Russian ambassador to Bangladesh, Gennady P Trotsenko, made a courtesy call on the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, at her Sudha Sadan residence on Wednesday.

During an hour-long meeting, they discussed the bilateral relations and current political situation in the country.

Former ambassador Mohammad Ziauddin was present at the meeting.

N A T I O N A L  N E W S

Indefinite siege of Bangabhaban from Jan 14, blockade on Jan 14-15,17-18, hartal on Jan 21-22 if polls not cancelled

Awami League, allies announce fresh spell of agitation programs

Asserting her demand for immediate cancellation of the January 22 'farcical polls', Awami League president and the premier leader of the mega-combine, Sheikh Hasina yesterday declared a nine-day action programme including non-stop siege of Bangabhaban starting from January 14 and a 48-hour nationwide stoppage (hartal) on January 21 and January 22.

Announcing the fresh course of action programme at a mammoth public rally at the capital's Paltan Maidan, she has said the mega-combine is also giving a call for countrywide rail-road-waterway-port blockade program on January 14 and January 15, and on January 17 and January 18.

"If the caretaker government of Prof Iajuddin Ahmed fails to accept our demands by this time, a countrywide 48-hour hartal will be observed on January 21 and January 22 and if the government goes ahead with holding the farcical election on January 22, we will be compelled to call a non-stop countrywide blockade program for restoration of democracy, the Constitution and franchise," Sheikh Hasina said amid thunderous slogans, cheers and clapping of thousands of people.

"We will not let anybody play with the people's fate and their legitimate rights to franchise and democracy any more and we along with the masses will resist the caretaker government's conspiracy to hold a farcical election on January 22," she said and wanted to know whether the masses are ready for resisting the polls in the ongoing movement, they replied in the affirmative raising both their hands.

"The movement for restoration of democracy and voting right as well as saving the country from the plunderers of national wealth must continue," Sheikh Hasina said adding that holding of a free, fair and credible election is a far cry under President Prof Iajuddin Ahmed as he became the yes-man of BNP and Hawa Bhaban for implementing their conspiracy of election engineering depriving the people of their franchise.

She also demanded immediate resignation of the President from the post of the Chief Adviser which he assumed unconstitutionally, rescheduling of the polls, publication of a flawless, corrected and updated voter list, reforming the Election Commission (EC), issuing voters' identity cards, removing the 300 partisan officials from the EC and crating an atmosphere conducive to credible polls.

Calling upon the people from all strata to build a united resistance at all the polling centres round the country to the January 22 one-sided election at any cost, Sheikh Hasina also urged those employees and officials involved in the election process including Presiding Officers and polling officers not to go and take part in the January 22 polls when the mega-combine along with the masses have already boycotted the mockery of an election.

She also warned them if they go to the polling centres to cooperate with and assist in holding the farcical polls, then they will be treated as the enemies of the people. The Awami League President also called upon the people from all walks of life to build an all-out resistance to the holding of an one-sided poll adding that the development partners and donor agencies had already refused to send poll observers as this mockery in the name of election would not be credible nationally and internationally.

The Awami League-led mega-combine comprising the 14-party alliance, Jatiya Party (Ershad), Liberal Democratic Party, Zaker Party and a faction of the Islami Oikya Jote organized the public rally marking the Homecoming Day of the founding father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The great leader returned to independent Bangladesh from Pakistani prison on January 10 in 1972. with Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

Some 27 leaders of the mega-combine including HM Ershad, Prof AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, Abdul Jalil, Rashed Khan Menon, Col (Retd) Oli Ahmed, Hasanul Huq Inu, Kazi Zafar Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta, Matia Chowdhury, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Mostafa Ameer Faisal, ABM Ruhul Amin Howladar, Md Nurul Islam, AKM Rahamatulah, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya (Bir Bikram), Dilip Barua, Haji Abdus Samad, Mofizul Islam Khan Kamal, MA Gani, Zakir Hossain and Dr Asit Baron Roy also addressed the rally which was presided over by Sheikh Hasina. The rally was conducted by Asaduzzaman Noor.

During her speech from 4-55pm, Sheikh Hasina also brought allegations against Prof Iajudin Ahmed of violating the Constitution in every step and hatching a conspiracy to snatch away people's voting right by arranging an election without a voter list at the dictates of his mentor Begum Khaleda Zia to protect those thieves who have plundered thousands of crores of public money and siphoned off the amount abroad by helping them assume power again in order to indulge in more corruption and exploit the people.

"They (BNP-Jamaat) want to go to power through a farcical poll of election engineering to loot the people's money and wealth again as they know better that the people of Bangladesh would try them and realize the huge amount of money they have looted while in power," Sheikh Hasina said adding: "Although he was one of my teachers at Dhaka University days, I presume all the human feelings and senses of Prof Iajuddin Ahmed have withered away as he has now been behaving like nothing but a stooge of Khaleda Zia forgetting his obligations to the people."

Referring to Article 7, Articles 121 and 122 of the Constitution which enshrine the people's empowerment and stress the obligation of a flawless voter list to conduct an election, the mega-combine chief posed a question as to how Prof Iajuddin Ahmed's government could announce polls schedule and arrange the national polls on January 22 prior to publishing a flawless voter list.

About the BNP-Jamaat's campaign against her remarks on 90-day timeframe obligation for holding election by the caretaker government, the former Prime Minister said a congenial atmosphere was created then in 1996 and the polls schedule was announced after publication of a corrected and updated voter list. Otherwise, she said that the BNP and its allies would not have taken part in that election.

Citing the reasons for boycotting the election by the mega-combine, she said, "We have decided to take part in the polls and prepared the nominees but we have detected that there is an absence of a flawless, corrected and updated voter list, found two to three rolls, over 300 partisan election officials and, moreover, we have observed that the caretaker government didn't honor its five-point package offer….now we could easily guess the government will play an election game, the results of which are already prepared and only then we took the election boycott decision to protect people's franchise."

Condemning strongly police excesses on the national leaders and even on women activists of the mega-combine, Sheikh Hasina instructed the platform leaders to prepare a list of those partisan officials who ordered such brutalities reminding them of enhancing their salaries and facilities including construction of a multi-storied building as police hostel during her government's tenure. She said, "You are also voters…but you can't let the vote thieves indulge in stealing of votes by assaulting the national leaders….the consequences will be bad for you as we are in a movement for restoring democratic and constitutional rights for the people through which rule of law and transparency and accountability of a government will be ensured and the people will get a better lifestyle."

Chanting various slogans against holding of the farcical polls of January 22 and carrying banners, placards, posters, big portraits of Bangabandhu, Sheikh Hasina and polls aspirants, thousands of people converged on the rally venue from different city wards and adjoining districts and by 4pm the entire Paltan Maidan and its surrounding streets turned into a human sea.

Grand alliance leaders urge people

Resist one-sided election

Awami League-led grand alliance leaders yesterday called on the people from all walks of life to resist the one-sided January 22 elections in order to restore democracy in the country.

There will be no election under Chief Adviser to the caretaker government Iajuddin Ahmed, they asserted at a grand rally held at Paltan Maidan in the capital.

"The chief adviser must be removed, all attempts to implement the election engineering be stopped and the rejected nomination papers be accepted before any elections can take place," said Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad.

The nation now feels helpless in the face of a conspiracy, he said, adding that Awami League President Sheikh Hasina is spearheading a campaign to restore democracy and a democratic government will return to power.

HM Ershad said there is a conspiracy to arrest himself. "I have surrendered my fate to the grand alliance, now it is up to them and the people to decide what lies in store for me," he added.

"This might be the last time I come onto this stage, but if the conspiracy can be foiled and I can be freed, I will come back here again for you," the JP chairman said.

"My last word to you is that I can promise that the one-sided elections will be resisted with the last drop of our blood," he stated.

Badrudozza Chowdhury, president of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), said the nation is facing the greatest crisis since independence as the people are being deprived of their basic right to vote through a conspiracy.

The people who have struggled to earn their freedom in 1971 are again being robbed of their rights by the BNP-Jamaat alliance through an evil design being implemented by the president/ chief adviser, he said.

He also criticized the chief adviser, saying that President Iajuddin Ahmed himself has violated the constitution to become the chief adviser, but now he (Iajuddin) is citing the provisions of the constitution to defend his decision to hold the one-sided election.

"As 70 percent of candidates have withdrawn their nomination papers, how can a credible election take place?" Badruddoza asked.

He accused the chief adviser of being the protagonist of the conspiracy to destroy democracy. Therefore, he has to bear all the consequences, Badruddoza added.

He appealed to the police and the army to stand by the people to help prepare a correct and updated voter list.

Worker's Party President Rashed Khan Menon said that giving the army the power to arrest anyone from any place without a warrant is part of a conspiracy to bring back the BNP-Jamaat coalition to state power.

Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal President Hasanul Haque Inu called on the activists to make allout efforts to resist the 'farcical' elections.

Zaker Party Chairman Mostafa Amir Faisal said President Iajuddin Ahmed became the chief adviser by violating the constitution only to hold a 'one-sided' election in order to bring back the BNP-Jamaat coalition to power.

Awami League General Secretary and 14-party coordinator Abdul Jalil said the people would resist the election at any cost to prevent the communal and undemocratic forces from forming the government.

Awami League (AL) presidium member Amir Hossain Amu said no election with Iajuddin as Chief Adviser. People will resist all sorts of conspiracy.

Abdur Razzak said, "We will erect a wall of resistance to protect the bid to hold a fake election on January 22."

Tofail Ahmed said there would be no election on January 22, as we know how to face the attempt of a farcical election.

Awami League leaders Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Motia Chowdhury, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim and Suranjit Sengupta, JP leaders Kazi Zafar Ahmed and Ruhul Amin Hawlader and LDP leaders Oli Ahmed and Maj (retd) Abdul Mannan also spoke at the grand rally.

NDI, IRI won't watch Jan 22 elections

US-based election watchdogs National Democratic Institute (NDI) and International Republican Institute (IRI) yesterday suspended plans to send their delegations for the January 22 parliamentary elections as all of the major parties are not participating in it.

"The NDI and IRI have concluded that an international observer mission would be unable to make a positive contribution to the process because all of the major parties are not participating in the elections," they said in a joint statement.

The statement said the IRI and NDI are also concerned about the impact the current political environment might have on the ability of international observers to safely and effectively observe the elections.

Earlier on January 6, the European Union also said its Election Observation Mission for the upcoming general elections in Bangladesh may not proceed as expected if the political stakeholders fail to resolve the ongoing crisis.

"A failure of the current electoral process would be a major setback for democracy in Bangladesh and for the international credibility of the country," the EU stated in a release of the local EU presidency.

The Daily Star, January 11, 2007

Says reports

1345 women repressed in six months

A total of 1345 incidents of repression on women, including 457 incidents of murder and 226 incidents of rape, took place across the country in the period of July-December 2006.

Forty-seven women were victims of acid throwing and 74 were physically tortured during the same time, revealed a report yesterday prepared by Bangladesh Nari Progoti Sangha based on newspaper reports.

The Daily Star, January 11, 2007

P A R T Y  N E W S   U P D A T E

Homecoming Day of Mujib observed

The Awami League and its front organizations on Wednesday observed the Homecoming Day from confinement in Pakistan of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding president of Bangladesh, through various programmes.

The allies of the Awami League also held a number of events to mark the day.

On this day in 1972, Mujib returned home from Pakistan, where he had been held, since his arrest by the Pakistani occupational forces on the night of March 25, 1971, in solitary confinement in a prison throughout the nine months of our War of Independence.

As part of the programs, the Awami League hoisted the party flag at all its offices, its leaders including Awami League president Sheikh Hasina placed wreaths at Mujib's portrait at the Bangabandhu Bhaban in Dhaka, and held a rally in the capital's Paltan Maidan.

Central and local Awami League leaders placed wreaths and offered Fateha at Mujib's grave at Tungipara in Gopalganj district.

O T H E R S

Hotelier shot dead by extortionists

A restaurant owner was shot dead by the extortionists at Shyampur in the capital yesterday.

The extortionists sprayed bullets on Zahirul Islam, 55, owner of Bappi & Rabbi Hotel and Restaurant, at Zia Smarani under Shyampur Police Station in the capital yesterday morning as he refused to pay them Tk 1 lakh as toll few days ago, family members said.

Zahir was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) in critical condition where he succumbed to his injuries at 8:00pm. He was shot in his abdomen, chest and back.

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