NCC Elections

BNP legal notice to deploy army

29 October 2011, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent

A BNP lawmaker yesterday served a legal notice on the government demanding immediate army deployment as per requirement of the Election Commission (EC) for holding today's vote of the Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) in a free and fair manner. Barrister AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon, an MP from Noakhali-1 constituency, sent the notice through his lawyer to the prime minister's principal secretary, and secretaries to the ministries of defence and home affairs. Khokon's lawyer barrister Ahmed MH Khan said in the notice that the government's decision not to deploy army personnel in the NCC elections is “unconstitutional, illegal, mala fide, politically motivated and without jurisdiction”. The army was not there in place from Friday morning as per the EC's requirement. Since that did not happen, the chief election commissioner later in the day said, “The EC assumes that there would be no army men to maintain law and order in the polls”. The EC on October 16 sent a letter to the Armed Forces Division (AFD), asking it to deploy four companies of troops for five days to maintain law and order in the election areas. Ahmed MH Khan in the notice added that his client would take appropriate legal actions against the respondents if they fail to meet his demand.