AL, BNP central leaders knee-deep in campaign

With three days to go before the elections to four city corporations, Awami League and BNP central leaders continued their campaign in Rajshahi and Barisal cities yesterday for the two mayoral front runners.
Our Rajshahi correspondent reports: Awami League Organising Secretary Abu Sayeed Al Mahmud joined the campaign for outgoing mayor and AL leader AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, while BNP Standing Committee Member Nazrul Islam Khan sought votes for Jubo Dal city President Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul.
In order to draw attention of the voters, both the mayoral and councillor candidates visited the city areas with popular musicians yesterday. Singer and AL lawmaker Mamtaz Begum joined Liton's campaign team, while singer Asif Akbar accompanied Bulbul.
Meanwhile, independent mayoral runner Habibur Rahman announced his 29-point manifesto at Rajshahi City Press Club yesterday, promising to build a solar power-based city and produce biogas and electricity.
Our Barisal correspondent adds: AL leaders AFM Bahauddin Nasim, Abul Hasanat Abdullah, and Balaram Poddar, and Swechchhasebok League leader Pankaj Devnath continued their campaign for outgoing mayor Shawkat Hossain Hiron. BNP leader Abdullah Al Noman electioneered for district BNP President Ahsan Habib Kamal.
Meanwhile, a two-day mock voting to train the voters of Barisal city's ward-16 on the use of electronic voting machine (EVM) ended yesterday.
A total of 982 people--527 males and 455 females--cast their votes through the EVM at two separate centres in the ward, which has 4,181 voters.
The EVM will be introduced only in this ward during Barisal City Corporation election on Saturday.