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The Chittagong City Corporation goes to polls today amid massive security as two key rival candidates, Mir Mohammad Nasir Uddin of the ruling four-party alliance and ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury of the Awami League, put their popularity to test in the battle for the mayoral post.
   Top leaders from both the BNP-led the ruling alliance and the largest opposition in parliament, the Awami League, converged on the port city in aid of their respective candidates bearing in mind that the polls would be a turning point to determine the next course of national politics.
   A large number of ministers and parliament members are now in the city to guide and also oversee their respective parties contending for the mayor’s post in Chittagong occupied by the Awami League for the last 11 years.
   The non-stop eight-hour voting begins at 8:00am in the port city with 11,38,318 registered voters, most of whom are expected to cast votes to elect their next city father and 55 ward commissioners, including 14 women commissioners.
   A total number of 304 candidates are vying for 41 posts of ward commissioners, and 83 for the reserved 14 posts of woman commissioners, but the main competition will be limited to challenger Mir Nasir and ABM Mohiuddin, the incumbent mayor. The electoral symbol of Mir Nasir is ‘bicycle’ while Mohiuddin’s is ‘lantern’.
   With police and other law enforcers deployed in all polling centres considered vulnerable to violence — according to previous records, law and order situation of the localities and influence of the candidates — an unprecedented security blanket has been thrown on the commercial capital of the country to ensure an allegation-free, fair and neutral poll.
   Nearly 20,000 security forces, including 1,120 troopers and 300 coast guards, have been deployed in the port city on Saturday evening. Authorities say eight companies and a 120-member task-force of the army took up positions in the city with six companies of paramilitary rifles, 10,000 policemen and 8,000 Armed Police Battalion and Ansars on Saturday.
   The military personnel, split into 80 teams, will be patrolling the city, and will be led by 70 magistrates, while 60 teams of Bangladesh Rifles will be on duty with one magistrate to lead each team.
   Sources said 522 magistrates would be engaged on the election day and would conduct 14 mobile courts. They said at least 24 security personnel would be deployed in every polling centre during the election.
   The Election Commission also decided to deploy special teams in 14 centres and take special security measures in 74 centres, since they are considered most vulnerable.
   The commission appointed 10,210 officials, including 577 presiding officers, 3,211 assistant presiding officers and 6,422 polling officers, to conduct the polls effectively.
   A control room in the Chittagong Gymnasium was also set up on Friday afternoon, by which all election activities will be conducted and monitored. ‘It will remain open till the announcement of the polls results,’ Golam Kuddus, returning officer of the CCC polls, told New Age.
   Election materials such as ballot papers and ballot boxes have already been sent to each voting centre. The day will be declared a public holiday in Chittagong to help the electorate to cast votes at a total of 577 polling centres.
   The Election Commission, at a review meeting at its secretariat on Sunday, said that all preparations to hold the election in a free, fair and neutral manner had already been completed.
   The commission’s meeting, chaired by the chief election commissioner, MA Syed, decided to snap the mobile network and restrict use of walkie-talkies to only law enforcers, election officials and emergency service organisations in Chittagong from 6am to 7pm on Election Day.
   Having discussed the Nagarik Committee’s complaints and newspaper reports that many ineligible persons were engaged in the election process, the EC changed the concerned officials/employees to stage ‘allegation-free’ polls.
   Ruling out the allegation of shifting 13 voting centres 48 hours ahead of the election, the commission made no change in locations of voting centres after the disclosure of the centres’ locations through gazette notification on April 19.
   The meeting sought cooperation from all including voters, candidates, election officials and the law enforcers to holding the mayoral polls in a free, fair and neutral manner.
   The EC banned the movement of all motorised vehicles in the Chittagong Metropolitan area from early Monday to Tuesday morning. But vehicles engaged in election duty and carrying observers and journalists will remain out of the purview.
   Nearly 2,000 observers from home and abroad reached the port city to monitor the CCC polls.
   Fourteen other election monitoring agencies have already been working in Chittagong for the last one week.
   The other major candidates vying for the mayoral post are Haider Ali Chowdhury of Jatiya Party (Manju), Maulana Abul Kashem Noori of the Islami Front, Dilip Bhadra of the Ganotantri Party and Didarul Alam of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Jiku).
   The BNP-backed alliance and Awami League-backed Nagarik Committee fielded 55 candidates each for the posts of 55 ward commissions, including 14 women commissioners.
   Jamaat’s commissioner candidates are now contesting at 14 wards — five of them will vie as alliance candidates while nine will contest on Jamaat’s ticket. Coalition partner Bangladesh Jatiya Party is also contesting the polls in only three wards, while Islami Oikya Jote has fielded its candidate for Lal Khan Bazar ward with the alliance’s nomination.
   Meanwhile, huge inconsistencies and mismanagements regarding distribution of voting accessories to polling centres by the returning officer’s office were seen on Sunday.
   Several hundred presiding officers were seen waiting in front of the election control room at the Chittagong gymnasium adjacent to the MA Aziz stadium for a long time as the authorities failed to provide the ballot boxes and other accessories in time.
   ‘The returning officer asked me to be present at 10:00am to receive the boxes but until 3:30pm I’m waiting here as the authority is yet to supply the boxes,’ a presiding officer told New Age.
   A poll official, who had been waiting for transport for about three hours to carry the election materials to a polling centre, alleged that he had found no transport to carry the materials.

The dismayed Election Commission irked by the appointment of Class IV employees as polling officials asked the returning officer of the Chittagong City Corporation polls to replace the unfit people with competent officials immediately.
   The directive came at a commission’s meeting, in its secretariat in Dhaka, to review the overall preparation for the elections to be held today in a free and fair means. The chief election commissioner, MA Syed, was in the chair.
   Meeting sources said the chief election commissioner had expressed surprise and castigated the returning officer, Golam Quddus, after seeing newspaper reports that some unfit persons had been appointed as assistant presiding and polling officers.
   ‘The returning officer was called from the meeting and asked for an explanation in this regard,’ said a meeting source.
   ‘We consider them incompetent and directed for instant replacement with competent persons such as schoolteachers,’ election commissioner AK Mohammad Ali told reporters after the meeting.
   ‘We were confident that the returning officer would appoint competent people,’ he said. Replying to a question, he said it would not be possible for them to take any action against the returning officer only a day before the polls.
   A press release issued by the commission, however, mentioned that the election officers or employees concerned were changed immediately in compliance with the order.
   At a press briefing in the evening in Chittagong, the returning officer claimed that he had directed the presiding officers to replace lower-grade polling officers immediately.
   ‘I was not aware of the employees who I appointed as assistant presiding and polling officers,’ he said, adding that his office appointed the people on the basis of the list sent from different government and semi-government establishments.
   ‘There was no provision to engage Class IV employees in this task. So I directed the presiding officers to replace them with the reserved employees,’ Quddus said.
   According to a press report, 123 Class IV employees out of 6,422 assistant presiding officers and polling officers of Chittagong Port, Bangladesh Shipping Corporation, PDB, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation and some other institutions were assigned to conduct the polls at different centres.
   ‘By appointing inefficient persons to the posts of assistant presiding officer and polling officer, the returning officer has frustrated the Election Commission,’ MA Syed told BDNews.

1. Introduction of city government
   2. Expansion of the city corporation area from 60 to 120 square miles
   3. Construction of a hanging bridge over the Karnaphuli
   4. Establishment of a water treatment plant
   5. Setting up of power plants
   6. Reduction of holding tax by one per cent
   7. No ban on rickshaw movement
   8. Establishment of a medical college with a 500-bed hospital
   9. Medicare facilities for slum dwellers through mobile hospitals
   10. Setting up of HIV/AIDS treatment centre
   11. Establishment of pharmaceutical industry to ensure medicine at reasonable rate
   12. Elevation of CCC-run schools to colleges and intermediate colleges to degree colleges
   13. Second shift in CCC-run madrassahs and other religious institutions
   14. Establishment of a foreign language teaching centre
   15. Setting up of a cottage industry at Bakalia
   16. Commissioning of more garbage treatment plants
   17. Creation of satellite town at Fatehabad
   18. Setting up of a garments village on 111 acres of land at Fatehabad
   19. Establishment of a central bonded warehouse for the readymade garment sector
   20. Rehabilitation of dislocated people in phases
   21. Separate terminals for trucks, covered vans and container carriers
   22. Introduction of a circular train service
   23. Flyover at important crossings
   24. Modernisation and expansion of the port
   25. A 1,000-seat auditorium
   26. A Tk 500-crore tourism centre at Patenga beach
   27. Development of the Anwara Parky beach into a modern tourism spot
   28. Amusement park of an international standard
   29. Separate tourism centre for foreign tourists
   30. Declaration of St Martins and Cox’s Bazar as tourism zone
   31. Excavation of the Karnaphuli for proper navigation
   32. A self-reliant city corporation through new tax regime
   33. Expansion of rail link between Dohazari and Cox’s Bazar
   34. A sluice gate at the mouth of the Chaktai canal
   35. Expansion of the seaport to the Sandwip channel and establishment of a deep seaport at Maheshkhali and Kutubdia
   36. Preservation of ecology at the Halda
   37. Separate counter at Shah Amanat International Airport for expatriate Bangladeshis
   38. Modernisation of the Shahi Jame Mosque
   39. Free water and electricity supply to religious institutions
   40. Reopening of closed mills and factories

1. Corruption-free city corporation
   2. The port free from foreign aggression
   3. No increase in holding tax
   4. Crime-free and safe city
   5. Uninterrupted power supply
   6. Permanent solution to water crisis
   7. Development of Chittagong into a full-fledged commercial capital
   8. Implementation of a project on healthy city
   9. Rehabilitation of displaced people
   10. Medicare for city people
   11. Second shift in CCC-run educational institutions
   12. Construction of flyovers at key places
   13. Clean city
   14. Development of Chittagong as a twin city of Chiang Mai
   15. Implementation of different projects to generate employment for youths
   16. Housing facility for all city corporation official
   17. Special allocation for religious institutions
   18. Excavation of canal to remove water logging
   19. Introduction of awards for journalists
   20. Special projects for freedom fighters
   21. Environment development projects to ensure a pollution-free city
   22. Tea plantation programme
   23. Necessary measures for entertainment of city people

Thirty-two Bangladeshi job-seekers have been arrested over the past one week when they were trying to enter Europe, according to reports of a Turkish news agency and a leading Pakistani daily. The Bangladesh foreign ministry is not yet aware of the arrest.
   Pakistani border guards arrested 12 Bangladeshi nationals near Taftan, a Pakistani town on the Iranian border in Quetta province, on Saturday as they tried to enter Iran without visas. Twenty other illegal migrants were arrested in Igdir, a city of Turkey, on April 30.
   The Bangladeshis, arrested in Pakistan while crossing the border illegally, were handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency, which deals with immigration issues, for further investigation.
   On the other hand, the office of the Igdir governor in Turkey told the press that after getting a telephone tip-off, Turkish security officials had stopped a boat carrying illegal migrants to Tuzluca town in Igdir. They also arrested 30 Pakistanis and 10 Afghans.
   It was also reported that every year hundreds of Pakistanis and others from neighbouring India and Bangladesh try to travel to Europe through Iran, often without visas, to find better jobs there.
   The foreign secretary, Hemayetuddin Ahmed, when reached by telephone on Sunday night said that the ministry had no information in this regard.

The authorities of the Hossain Chemical Plant at Enayet Nagar in Fatullah of Narayanganj filed a case accusing about 100 people of vandalising the plant Saturday leaving at least 25 people, including two Chinese nationals, injured.
   One Masud Hasan of Dharmaganj area also filed a general diary against the plant authorities, saying some people in the area had fallen sick following the emission of toxic gas by the factory since Thursday.
   The administrative officer of the plant, Mostafizur Rahman, filed the case with the Fatullah police saying that the people damaged furniture, office appliances, computers, television sets and other equipment worth about Tk 3.5 core.
   A three-member probe committee, headed by the additional district magistrate of Narayanganj, has been formed and it was asked it to submit the report within seven days. Other members of the committee are a representative from the environment and forest ministry and a chemical expert.
   Meanwhile, all in the area — the local people, factory staff and the law enforcers deployed in the factory compound — were in anxiety till Sunday apprehending that the clogged up poisonous gas may release again any time.
   The factory, however, remained closed.
   Also, panicked by the faulty production process and fresh attack by the local people, the six Chinese chemists left the plant Saturday night.
   The local people said they had repeatedly informed the factory authorities of the matter, they did not take any step to stop emission of the poisonous gas that resulted in the illness of many people and deaths of scores of domestic animals on Thursday and Friday.
   The factory was established two years back.
   People, particularly the elderly, children and women carrying babies, suffered from suffocation, dizziness and vomiting, they said and added that everything in the area, including trees, water hyacinths and other plants, were getting yellowish.
   The local people alleged that Mehedi Hasan, the plant owner, filed the case to realise money from insurance company.

Envoys of the European Union in Dhaka on Sunday expressed serious concern over extra-judicial killings under the brand of crossfire, especially by the Rapid Action Battalion, ‘in the context of next general elections’.
   ‘We are still very concerned at the extra-judicial killing. We are continuing dialogue with the government,’ said Kees Beemsterboer, the Dutch ambassador, reiterating the EU position on ‘crossfire’ incidents at a press conference on the eve of Europe Day.
   Dwelling on the current controversy arising out of the opposition’s demand for changes in the composition of the caretaker government, Beemsterboer, who also represents Luxemburg holding presidency of the EU Council, said the caretaker system, which is unique in the world, worked well in the past.
   ‘It is not our concern how to change it (further reform in caretaker government). It is very much a domestic issue,’ he said.
   He explained that the recent resolution taken in the European Parliament seeking reforms in the caretaker government does not reflect the official position of the 25-nation group.
   Terming themselves partners in development, the EU diplomats made it clear that they wanted to see free and fair elections in Bangladesh and transparent polling preparations.
   The British high commissioner, Anwar Chowdhury, added that the resolution dealt with broader issues such as reforms for good governance stressed the need for making parliament effective and inter-party talks and also appreciated ‘modest improvement’ in law and order.
   Asked about contradictory observation by the European Parliament about the improvement in law and order and considering the extra-judicial killing undemocratic, the Dutch envoy referred to the government’s drive against fundamentalism as improvement, not the success of actions of the Rapid Action Battalion.
   In reply to a question on hiccup between the government and the bilateral and multilateral lenders on the recent Washington meeting, they said it was a ‘united front of all donors’, so they expressed concern about development in Bangladesh.
   Asked about investigation into the attack on the British envoy, Anwar Chowdhury himself said investigations into a number of attacks were going on and he was yet to know the development.

Nearly 13,000 Myanmar Muslims who have been living illegally in Bangladesh over the last decade as unlisted refugees are fighting a grim battle against starvation and disease.
   ‘We are just waiting for death that will relieve us of all pains,’ said Kala Miah, 75.
   The refugees, who fled west Myanmar’s Muslim-majority Arakan state to escape alleged military persecution and find work, are living outside two official government refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar district, 400 kilometres southeast of Dhaka.
   Refugees in Damdamia, 80 kilometre from the resort town of Cox’s Bazar, said they had no food except for some rice and wheat handed out by local charities every two or three months, and nothing to drink except rain water.
   Three of the refugees have died of hunger in recent months, and hundreds more are suffering from starvation and diarrhoea, fever and skin diseases, they said.
   Some 250,000 Rohingyas—as Myanmar Muslims are known—crossed into Bangladesh in early 1992 but most were repatriated
   by September the same year under supervision of the UN High Commissioner of Refugees.
   Since then there have been little homeward movement while more Rohingyas have trickled in across the porous 320 kilometre Bangladesh-Myanmar border.
   More than 20,000 others now live in the two government camps at Kutupalong and Nayapara near Cox’s Bazar.
   Bangladeshi officials say most of the Rohingyas are
   economic refugees, and that Myanmar authorities were not keen to take them back.
   ‘The repatriation process has been very slow over last many years though Yangon kept saying they will take the refugees back. But we are being continuously burdened
   to host the unwelcome guests,’ said one official who asked not to be identified.
   Members of several Bangladeshi rights groups and voluntary organisations who visited Damdamia on Saturday found conditions for the survivors were miserable.
   ‘The refugees deserve attention and care from both the Bangladesh government and international agencies because no one can deny they are human beings, too,’ said Kazi Azizul Huq of the Centre for Development Studies.
   Despite requests from some international agencies, impoverished and overpopulated Bangladesh has said it will never offer the Rohingyas a permanent home.
   The government says it will not open any more camps for them and will try to close the two existing camps as soon as possible.
   ‘There is none on earth or in heaven to help us. We have no home, no future and no dream,’ said Sabura Khatun, 45.

Two owners of the Spectrum Sweaters and Knitting Limited were sent to jail Sunday after they had surrendered to the Dhaka district and sessions judge’s court with a plea for bail in the case on the April 11 collapse of the company’s nine-storey factory building at Savar that left at least 76 workers killed and many others missing.
   Shahriar Sayeed Hasan and Abul Hashem Fakir, managing director and director respectively of the company, appeared in the court with about 50 lawyers, led by the Dhaka Bar Association president, Abdus Sabur, and the general secretary, Khorshed Alam, at about 10:30am.
   In the bail petition, the lawyers claimed that the sections of law mentioned in the case, filed by the officer-in-charge of the Savar police station, Nazrul Islam, were bail-able.
   They also pleaded that the factory building had been constructed according to an approved plan.
   However, when the session judge, Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, asked them to produce the plan they failed, sources in the court said.
   The lawyers also claimed that the owners of Spectrum had already distributed Tk 20 lakh among the family of the workers killed in the collapse.
   The public prosecutor, Mohsin Miah, said the collapse was the worst-ever in the country’s history and the owners had constructed it with a faulty plan.
   Hearing both sides, the court rejected the bail petition and ordered them to be sent to jail.
   The court also fixed May 12 for hearing the petition along with the lower court documents.

Eight new police stations are likely to start functioning in the capital within a month.
   The finance ministry has already given nod to setting up of the stations in the first phase in the capital and the number of police stations will gradually be increased to 51.
   In a clearance letter sent to the home ministry on May 4, the finance ministry finalised the manpower for the new police stations.
   As per the instructions, each of the stations will have 78 persons — one inspector, 14 sub-inspectors, six assistant sub-inspectors, one havilder, two nayeks, 50 constables, two cooks and two sweepers.
   The acting DMP commissioner, Faruk Ahmed, told New Age on Sunday that they were looking for suitable houses for the new police stations.
   ‘We’re trying to set up at least two police stations in the west and north divisions by the first half of June and the rest will be set up upon availability of suitable houses,’ he said.
   These eight police stations are: Shahbagh to be created by splitting Ranma police station, New Market from Dhanmondi, Paltan from Motijheel, Sarulia from Demra, Shah Alibagh from Mirpur, Adabar from Mohammad-pur, Shah Kabir from Uttara and Khilkhet from Badda police station.
   In the last year, the ministry of home affairs on a rise in criminal activities in the capital decided to raise the number of police stations to 51 from the existing 22 to curb crime and facilitate speedy investigation into the criminal cases.

The government and the Tata Group on Sunday agreed to kick off formal negotiation on May 23 and conclude it by August 31 to sign the contract for investing $2.5 billion in Bangladesh before November 30.
   The broad-based timetable for negotiation was fixed at a meeting between a high-level delegation of the Indian industrial giant and the prime minister-appointed committee to look into the Tata Group’s investment proposal.
   The major issues to be covered during the impending negotiation include infrastructure improvement, gas supply deal, allocation of land, cross-border transportation of raw materials and finished goods, and implementation issues.
   The Tata team members, including executive director of Tata Sons, Alan Rosling, and managing director of Tata Steel, B Mathuraman, Firdose Vandrevala of Tata Power and Prasad Menon of Tata Chemicals made presentations on Tata’s proposal, which are called status update.
   ‘We are pleased to be starting today the detailed discussion of our projects with the government of Bangladesh,’ Mathuraman said, and pointed out that the viability of the projects would depend on the ‘satisfactory outcome’ of the discussions.
   The industries minister, Motiur Rahman Nizami, joined the initial part of the talks.
   The state minister for energy and mineral resources, AKM Mosharraf Hossain, the state minister for power, Iqbal Hasan Mahmood, the principal secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office, the finance secretary, the foreign secretary, the planning secretary, the power secretary, the shipping secretary, the Petrobangla chairman and the Board of Investment’s executive chairman were present.
   ‘It will be complex and difficult negotiation and we must hammer out certain agreements on how to transport raw materials and finished goods from 1,000 miles away,’ said the BoI’s executive chairman after Sunday’s meeting.
   The government has, meanwhile, formed four teams for handling the matters relating to the negotiation with the Tata Group.
   The finance secretary will lead the negotiating team, the principal secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office will head the team to maintain contact between different agencies, the planning secretary-led team will negotiate with multilateral lending agencies for funding infrastructure development, and the foreign secretary will head the team which will hold talks with Indian authorities to clear up the bilateral issues.

The Awami League warned Sunday that if the government tried to snatch away the victory of ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury in the Chittagong City Corporation elections, the port city would go up in flames.
   The flames will spread through the country and the government will be forced to leave power, AL presidium member Abdur Razzak told a Muktangan rally, organised by the party’s Dhaka unit to protest against extra-judicial killings by the Rapid Action Battalion.
   ‘If the election is held in a free and fair manner, Mohiuddin will secure a landslide victory as he is the architect of modern Chittagong,’ he said.
   Referring to the recent deaths of Homna party leader Mafizul Islam alias Dudh Miah in RAB crossfire, Razzak also accused the ‘Khaleda-Nizami government’ of trying to destroy the Awami League.
   The AL general secretary, Abdul Jalil, alleged that supporters of the BNP-backed mayoral candidate were threatening minority voters not to caste vote in the elections.
   On the killing of Dudh Mia, he urged pro-AL lawyers, present at the rally, to help the wife of the deceased file a writ petition within seven days.
   The AL will launch a tougher movement against the battalion for their killings, announced Jalil.
   Chaired by the city AL president, Mohammed Hanif, the rally was addressed by presidium members Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, organising secretary Akhtaruz-zaman, city leader Haji Selim, Kamal Majumder and Syed Khokan.

An alleged activist of Islami Chhatra Shibir was killed in ‘crossfire’ between the Rapid Action Battalion and his associates at Chariya under Hathazari in Chittagong early Sunday, raising the crossfire death toll to 292 since June 2004.
   RAB sources said Dilwar Hossain alias Azrail Dilwar, chief of the Azrail group, also accused in half a dozen cases, including three murders, died in crossfire when they went to recover arms along with him in the area at around 3:30am.
   Earlier, a Chittagong RAB squad, on secret information, arrested Dilwar from the city’s Laldighi area Saturday afternoon.
   RAB claimed that after his arrest they took him to Chariya to recover arms according to his confessional statement.
   When they reached Chariya High School premise, accomplices of Dilwar opened fire on RAB. The battalion men also fired gunshots on the criminals, RAB said.
   More than 50 rounds of bullets were traded, of which RAB admittedly fired 19 rounds.
   Dilwar sustained serious bullet wounds in the line of fire and was taken to Hathazari Health Complex where the doctors declared him dead.
   RAB recovered nine firearms, including four SBBL guns, three revolvers, two light guns and 73 rounds of ammunitions from the spot after the encounter.
   RAB said Dilwar was involved in extortion, robbery and rape in the city and accused in sensational murders taking place in the city.