News

Staff Correspondent At least three people were killed and dozens injured in a spate of violence in different parts of the country during and after Thursday’s upazila elections, police said. An activist of the ruling Awami League was stabbed to death by rivals in Faridpur district while a supporter of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party ... Read more

Taskforce recommends blacklisting Huawei; punish BTTB officials Sharier Khan and Md Hasan A 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 ... Read more

Third UZ polls AL-backed candidates win most upazillas Like December 29 national parliament elections, Awami League-backed candidates secured 304 seats of Chairman in Thursday’s upazila parishads election outplaying the BNP that got only 82 seats of Chairman, according to unofficial results. According to unofficial results, the AL bagged 304 seats while BNP got 82 and ... Read more

Staff Correspondent Rajshahi division Panchagarh: at sadar, Md Abdul Khaleq of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami was unofficially elected chairman, Belayet Hossain vice-chairman and Kajol Rekha vice-president (reserved for women). At Atwari, Tawhidul Islam of the Awami League was unofficially elected chairman, Kamruzzaman Golap vice-chairman and Lutfa Begum vice-chairman (reserved). At Boda, Md Abdul Aziz of the ... Read more

BNP will go to power in the next election: Nazrul Staff Correspondent BNP Secretary General Khanadker Delwar Hossain on Friday said Awami League wants to establish democracy at gun point. “Awami League is not a well mannered political party as it always wants to establish democracy at gun point. Polling agents can be ousted from ... Read more

Staff Reporter Step is under process to take legal action by the Election Commission (EC) against the election rules violators, including ministers and ruling party MPs, according to a highly placed source. The measures are being taken as allegations were made from different upazilas of influencing the polls and violation of election code of conduct ... Read more

Bishwajit Roy Shakib 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

Staff Correspondent Lawyers, academicians and human rights activists on Friday came down heavily upon the ruling party ministers and MPs for creating influence over the Thursday upazilla polls and demanded of the government to sack those ministers who were involved in acts of influencing election officials to work in favour of their party backed candidates. ... Read more

Staff Correspondent Awami League and BNP will hold their parliamentary party meetings tomorrow before inauguration of the ninth parliament. The newly elected legislature will convene at 3:00pm at Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban. Its first task will be electing a speaker and deputy speaker. In the opening session, it might also elect a successor to President Iajuddin ... Read more

Staff Correspondent Manpower export is likely to fall significantly affecting country’s remittance earning this year due to global economic recession. Talking to The Bangladesh Today, BAIRA President Ghulam Mustafa said “The manpower exporting sector sends abroad around eight lac people every year while the country earns $9 billion per annum. But the ratio of manpower ... Read more

Staff Correspondent At least five people were injured in a fresh clash inside Baitul Mukarram national mosque between the group loyal to the new Khatib and the people opposing his appointment before jumma prayers on Friday. The scuffles broke out when

Picks seasoned, high-powered envoys to ME, Afghanistan and Pakistan Afp, Washington US President Barack Obama on Thursday picked two seasoned and high-powered envoys to the Middle East and Afghanistan and Pakistan, making another swift break with Bush administration policy. In an aggressive push for peace in the world’s most intractable hot spots, Obama named Northern ... Read more

Afp, Washington Hillary Clinton took charge Thursday of US foreign policy proclaiming a “new era for America” based on robust diplomacy and a fresh unity of purpose. “I believe with all my heart that this is a new era for America,” a beaming Hillary told a welcoming party of hundreds at the State Department following ... Read more

Mass Upsurge Day PM for building modern democratic Bangladesh UNB, Dhaka Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged all, irrespective of party and opinion, to work together to build Bangladesh as a modern democratic country free of hunger and poverty. In a message on the occasion of Mass Upsurge Day ’69 to be observed today, the Prime ... Read more

Staff Correspondent The people of Phulbari upazila in Dinajpur have elected an independent candidate as chairman who wooed the voters through a campaign against the proposed open-pit mining in the Phulbari coal field as it would displace thousands of people. Aminul Islam Bablu, a leader of rights group National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral ... Read more

EC slams ruling party for misusing offices, controlling administration; tells of violence, ballot-stuffing, seizing polling stations by AL men; decides to probe low turnout reason Shakhawat Liton and Shariful Islam Low turnout, ministers and ruling party lawmakers meddling in balloting, and irregularities in places marked the long-awaited upazila elections yesterday, meaning a letdown for the ... Read more

Ruling party interference, clash, voter intimidation, ballot box hijack mar upazila polls Staff Correspondent More than 100 people including policemen were injured across the country during clashes between supporters of rival candidates of upazila polls yesterday. Clashes, ruling party activists influencing polling, snatching of ballot boxes and ballot papers, preventing voters from going to the ... Read more

Staff Correspondent BNP on Thursday alleged massive irregularities and vote rigging took place during upazila election across the country under the very nose of law enforcers. “Ruling Awami League’s MPs, leaders and workers in association with the law enforcers influenced people for casting votes in favour of their candidates. Even they issued threat to the ... Read more

Staff Reporter Local Government and Cooperative Minister Syed Ashraful Islam yesterday expressed his satisfaction over the law and order situation during the upazila polls across the country. He said that the presence of voters at the polling centres would have been much higher if the political parties would participate in the upazila elections directly. Ashraful ... Read more

Say observers Staff Correspondent Several election monitoring orgainsations yesterday in preliminary findings said voters’ turnout in upazila parishad polls was low and incidence of violence in polling centers overshadowed the bright achievements of the recently held national polls. The Election Working Group, a non-partisan network of civil society organisation, in a press release said that ... Read more