AL kicks off preparation for JS polls

A day after the chief adviser announced the date for the ninth parliamentary election, Awami League (AL) formally began preparing for the election following directives of its chief Sheikh Hasina.
AL Election Conducting Committee, formed ahead of the stalled parliamentary polls of January 22, 2007, sat in Hasina's political office in Dhanmondi to revive its sub-committees created for election preparation.
AL will use the party chief's office as campaign headquarters. Logistic support has already been provided for the purpose.
"With directions of party chief Sheikh Hasina we sat to revive and rearrange our different election related committees so that they can start working for the next election," HT Imam, an AL advisory council member and the head of the committee, told The Daily Star last night.
"As all the election related committees were formed a couple of years ago, we have to revive them," he said.
Chaired by Imam, also a former cabinet secretary, the meeting analysed different strategic and technical issues and discussed coordination between committees related to the polls.
He said establishing communication with thana-, upazila- and district-level leaders is important for election preparations.
The AL leader said they also discussed how they could train their party leaders and workers to give them a clearer concept of the new electoral laws and code of conduct.
Around 30 members of the committee including a number of retired government officials attended the meeting. The committee will sit almost regularly.
Talking to The Daily Star a committee member, however, said they were called in so that they could teach the candidates and the polling agents about the new electoral laws and code of conduct.
AL acting General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, after a meeting of the party Presidium at acting President Zillur Rahman's Gulshan home, told reporters that they are 100 percent prepared to contest in the election.
AL Presidium member Suranjit Sengupta said they will not face any problems regarding preparations as they had prepared ahead of the stalled January, 22, 2007 polls.