Shakhawat Liton

Sylhet Metropolitan Police (SMP) denies Jatiya Oikyafront of permission for holding a rally in the city on October 23 on security ground.

The ruling Awami League is preparing to beef up electioneering across the country in the next two weeks before the Election Commission announces the schedule of the upcoming parliamentary polls.

The ruling Awami League led 14-party alliance has accused Election Commissioner Mahbub Talukdar of "violating the oath of secrecy" and it thinks he should resign.

Less than two weeks before the 90-day countdown begins for holding the general election, a number of contentious political issues remain unresolved.

The BNP has found itself in an awkward situation again. After weeks of talks and tough negotiations, the party just managed to bring together Dr Kamal Hossain's Gonoforum and three other parties and launch a new alliance, called Jatiya Oikyafront, on Saturday.

The Awami League and the BNP, who lead the two major alliances, may not have much to offer their own leaders in the parliamentary polls if they want to keep their partners happy.

Thirteen years ago, the then Election Commission, led by Justice MA Aziz, got itself caught up in a controversy by inviting 116 political parties to talks over preparing the voter list.

A landmark verdict by the Indian Supreme Court scrapping a section of country's IT law that authorised police to arrest people for

After weeks of talks and intense negotiations, the BNP and three other political parties formally launched an alliance called Jatiya Oikyo Front yesterday, just months before the national election. The alliance, which also includes Dr Kamal Hossain-led Jatiya Oikya Prokriya, unveiled an 11-point goals and promised to bring sweeping reforms in governance if voted to power. "We are making the call for a national unity in the interest of the nation, not for any particular political party. We expect others to join the Jatiya Oikya Front," Dr Kamal told a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club last evening.

It was the cabinet's oath-taking night after the 2001 parliamentary elections. The phone rang in the newsroom of The Daily Star. On the other end of the phone was the quivering voice of a man who, in his Dhaka University student days, was an infamous “armed cadre” of a political party.

A court observation in the August 21 grenade attack case verdicts highlights the expertise of the attackers.

It was a well-orchestrated plan, executed through abuse of state power, a special court has ruled, delivering verdicts in the two cases filed over the grenade attack on an Awami League rally 14 years ago.

He was hardly known to outsiders until his father, General Ziaur Rahman who became Bangladesh's president in the process of several coups and counter-coups, died in another military putsch in May 1981. Through a Bangladesh Television programme, the countrymen, eventually came to know of Tarique Rahman. And today, he is facing life term as the court verdict goes. From the crux of political power he now lives the life of a fugitive.

Juktofront, a platform of three political parties that played a crucial role in forging “greater national unity”, wants a sweeping change in the current winner-take- all system in politics.

It is a piece of paper full of lies and yet it is the legal government document that allows a person to drink alcohol in Bangladesh.

It took decades for the Indian Election Commission to accomplish the Herculean task of introducing electronic voting machines across the country for parliamentary elections.

In an unprecedented move since the 1989 Lebanon conflict, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres issued a letter to the Security Council a year ago seeking action against the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya in Myanmar.

The repatriation of the Rohingyas remains elusive even nine months after the signing of an agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

We still suffer from the fallout of August 15.

When Antonio Guterres visited Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar in 2008, it housed only 10,800 Rohingyas. The total number of Rohingya population living in the district was around 27,000. They had arrived there in previous years and were not repatriated to Myanmar like many others.