The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Country's major political party Bangladesh Awami League yesterday formally started its election preparation, in a quick step to end apprehensions and uncertainties over the much-awaited 9th parliamentary polls.

As an official start-off, in less than 24 hours after the setting of the election date, the Awami League's Election Preparation Committee sat in a meeting at its office at the party's Dhanmondi office in the morning. HT Imam presided over the meeting. Among others, Awami League's research and information secretary Nooh-ul-Alam Lenin was present at the meeting.

The meeting discussed and analyzed crucial strategic and technical issues related to the parliamentary polls, slated for December 18.

"The candidates and the polling agents will have to get acquainted with the new electoral laws and code of conduct. In the meeting we have discussed how they can be trained to give them a clear concept about the new laws," Nooh-ul-Alam told UNB after the meeting.

Primarily, the election-preparatory committee is contemplating giving training to district and upazila AL leaders and workers and the party's polling agents about the new legal requirements.

"The two important matters that need to be made clear to the candidates are delimitation and the limited election budget. We today discussed our probable steps in this regard," Lenin said about their spadework for compliance with the new electoral laws framed under the reform recipe of the interim regime.

He also said from now on, the subcommittees on election preparations would be reactivated gradually, which became inactive following the 1/11 political changeover and the scrapping of the polls previously scheduled for January 22, 2007.

Following the Chief Adviser's Saturday speech announcing December 18 as the date for holding the parliamentary polls, the Awami League thanked the government for paving the way for restoration of democracy and expressed its strong confidence about joining the long-awaited election fight.

On Sunday noon, party's acting general secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, at acting AL President Zillur Rahman's Gulshan residence looked very much eager to fight the electoral battle.

"We are cent-percent prepared to contest the elections," he said, apparently preempting their political archrival BNP and its allies who stuck to a major condition like scrapping the main electoral law-the Representation of People Order (RPO)-framed by the caretaker

government.