Shakhawat Liton

The Awami League will expedite institutionalising democracy and strengthen the National Human Rights Commission, the Anti-Corruption Commission, the mass media and the judiciary if voted to power for a third straight time.

The Jatiya Oikyafront, if voted to power, will form an all-party truth and reconciliation commission to investigate the extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and false cases of the last 10 years.

Businessmen are likely to retain their dominance in the next Jatiya Sangsad. Participation of a large number of businessmen in the polls indicates that their presence in the new parliament will be overwhelming and money will influence the election. In the alliances led by the Awami League and BNP, around 62 percent of the contestants are businessmen, according to the data from 286 of 300 constituencies.

There is no dearth of laws in our country to protect people from danger. But none of them could protect Aritry Adhikary, a ninth-grade student of the city's Viqarunnisa Noon School & College, who took her life on Monday hours after she and her parents were allegedly insulted by some teachers of the school.

The BNP has finalised candidates in at least 150 constituencies and will pick contenders for the remaining seats after the Election Commission decides the fate of many of its leaders' appeals against rejection of their nomination papers.

The BNP's strategy of fielding multiple candidates in almost every constituency has worked effectively. Otherwise, the party would not have any candidates in a large number of seats, say senior party leaders.

Jatiya Oikyafront would be making pledges for sweeping reforms, its draft manifesto indicated.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia cannot contest the upcoming parliamentary election as the Supreme Court yesterday upheld the High Court ruling barring a person sentenced to more than two years in jail from taking part in elections even if an appeal against the conviction is pending.

Around 1,700 aspirants from alliances led by Awami League and BNP are filing nominations in 300 constituencies as both the camps failed to pick a single contender in every seat for the upcoming parliamentary election.

The presence of observers in the upcoming election will be thinner compared with that in 2008, as both domestic and international organisations are unwilling to deploy strong workforce mainly due to fund crunch.

Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad has been unreachable for most of the party ranks over the last couple of days. He is staying in a house at Gulshan instead of his residence, President Park, in Baridhara.

Separate electoral symbols were reserved for all the political parties when they registered with the Election Commission in 2008. Their candidates are supposed to run for elections with own symbols.

The Jatiya Oikyafront and the BNP-led 20-party alliance will initially field multiple candidates all the 300 constituencies to avoid the risk of going to the polls without their contenders in some seats.

The Election Commission seems to have misread the electoral code of conduct and issued discriminatory instructions to police, resulting in Wednesday's clashes between BNP men and the law enforcers.

Surprising as it may seem to many, President Abdul Hamid has legal authority to play a significant role in ensuring that the next parliamentary election is held in a free and fair manner.

The Awami League looks all set to lead the largest electoral alliance ever to take on its archrival BNP and main opposition party and combines in the high-stake December election.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, who has been in jail since February 8 for conviction in a graft case, wants to contest the upcoming parliamentary polls from three constituencies, and nomination forms were bought for her yesterday.

The Jatiya Oikyafront and the BNP-led 20 party alliance have formally announced their decisions to join the upcoming parliamentary election but demanded that the Election Commission defer the December 23 polls by a month.

The BNP-led 20-party combine and Jatiya Oikyafront have decided in principle to join the upcoming national election but they will request the Election Commission to defer the polls, insiders say.

The root of the present crisis over the parliamentary polls lies in the Supreme Court's verdict on the 13th constitutional amendment case which declared the election-time non-partisan caretaker government system unconstitutional. And the solution to the crisis, to a large extent, also lies in the SC verdict.