Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday requested her Cabinet colleagues to take steps to ensure the highest possible attendance by voters at polling centres in their respective constituencies during the upcoming general elections, a senior minister said, quoting the PM.
She made this request at a special meeting with the ministers and the state ministers of the poll-time all-party government. The special meeting was held after the first Cabinet meeting of the new government was held at the secretariat, with the Prime Minister in the chair.
“The PM asked all the ministers and the state ministers to take necessary steps to hold the country’s 10th general elections in a free, fair and peaceful manner,” the minister said. “It is possible to hold free, fair and credible elections under the existing all-party government, and we have to prove it,” the minister added, quoting the PM.
“The PM expressed her hope that all the political parties, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its alliance partners, would participate in the upcoming polls,” he added.
“Your (ministers’) main task is to hold free and fair elections. And that is why you should talk to the Opposition leaders, even the chiefs of the Opposition parties, as they will attend the upcoming polls,” the minister said, quoting Sheikh Hasina. At the meeting, the Premier asked the state minister for home affairs to take necessary steps to ensure law and order during the polls so that voters can cast their votes without any fear.
After the meeting, state minister for home affairs Shamsul Haque Tuku told The Independent that they are ready to hold the upcoming elections in a peaceful manner. “Members of the law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been put on high alert across the country to deal with any untoward incident,” he said.
“Stern action would be taken against those who try to create an anarchic situation in the name of organising a movement,” the state minister added.
Meanwhile, replying to a question, Cabinet secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said, quoting the Prime Minister, “The current new Cabinet is an all-party government as the Premier had made an offer to all the political parties to join the poll-time government.”
Replying to another question, the Cabinet secretary said the Prime Minister is yet to issue any directives as to whether the current Cabinet would conduct only routine work or take policy decisions as well. He also said no adviser to the Prime Minister attended Monday’s Cabinet meeting.
The Cabinet approved the draft of the ‘Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) Act, 2013,’ providing for a jail term of minimum three years to maximum seven years, or Tk. 300,000 as fine, or both, for destroying, changing or polluting samples of DNA profiling. DNA profiling is very much needed for detecting criminals guilty of major offences like rape and murder, for detecting paternity, maternity and sibling relationships, for going abroad, and for identifying decomposed bodies.
-With The Independent input
