NCC polls tomorrow Tall promises by contestants with little authority to deliver

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Jubair Hasan The people of Narayaganj City Corporation (NCC) will go for voting tomorrow (Sunday) to elect their mayor and councilors, amid a lot of expectations that many of their long-lingering problems will be addressed by the would-be elected authorities. Also in areas under other city corporations throughout the country, the expectations of their dwellers from their local government bodies have, likewise, been always high, in view of their problems of wide-ranging nature having been deteriorating in most areas that concern their everyday life. But the performance of the authorities of A T M Shamsul Huda told reporters at 6:35pm at his office, reports bdnews24.com. The Election Commission (EC) officials earlier said that four companies of army would be deployed in Narayanganj at 8am on Friday. Officer Biswas Lutfur Rahman was quite candid in his response on Friday evening as he said, "Army personnel will not be deployed in the polls." Soon after the Chief Election Commissioner's announcement, supporters of BNP-backed NCC mayoral hopeful Taimur Alam Khandoker took to the streets in protest. Taimur alleged that the army was not deployed as the EC was not independent. Earlier in the day, Selina Hayat Ivy slammed the Commission for not deploying the army from Friday morning, as per its prior announcement. Awami League-backed candidate Shamim Osman, however, did not say anything in support of or against the Election Commission decision. UNB adds: BNP vice-chairman Abdullah Al Noman on Friday demanded resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner and his colleagues as they failed to deploy army for the Narayanganj City Corporation polls. "The CEC had said they would independently execute their decisions, but they couldn't. Even they've failed to deploy army [for the NCC polls]," Abdullah Al Noman told a press briefing at the party central office in the evening. He said the Election Commission had decided to deploy army for the NCC polls at 6am on October 28 to ensure security of the voters in the face of demand by three mayoral candidates and the people. "The EC suddenly changed its decision after a meeting today (Friday). They're saying that they won't deploy army in the NCC as the government didn't cooperate with them," Noman said. He said the EC claimed that it is unconstitutional that the government did not assist them to deploy army. "If the EC thinks that government's non-cooperation is unconstitutional then it can postpone the NCC polls." The BNP leader said no Election Commission will be able to hold fair election until this government is there in power. He demanded the EC change its decision and deploy army in the NCC by Saturday morning. Accusing the EC of being subservient to the government, the BNP leader said the Commission is executing government decisions on the NCC polls. "It couldn't prove its independent existence in holding any election in the past."