Over 300 of 10,000 upazila polls aspirants loan defaulters: BB

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Siddique Islam
The central bank has identified more than 300 loan defaulters among around 10,000 candidates, who intend to contest the Upazila elections scheduled for January 22 next year.
'We've already sent the names of the identified loan defaulters to the returning officers concerned across the country as per their requirements,' a senior executive of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Wednesday.
He also said the central bank has sent a list of the loan defaulters to the Election Commission (EC) for taking necessary measures in this connection.
A total of 9,976 nomination papers were submitted by polls aspirants from 481 Upazilas until Saturday last, the last date for filing nominations for the upazila polls.
years.
The military-backed interim government cancelled an earlier election after taking over in January 2007 amid a widespread political turmoil. It enforced emergency rule banning most political activities but vowed to hand over power to an elected government in January, 2009.
The rest of the Tk 1.29 billion might be sought by the EC after a review meeting with the home ministry on law enforcing agencies to be held today (Thursday), said the official.
Both the sides will fix the number of security personnel from police, Ansar and VDP and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) to be deployed in some 35,000-plus polling centres across the country.
The EC has added some 6,000 new polling centres to the existing number of centres in connection with the 9th parliamentary election. There were about 29,000 polling centres during the 8th parliamentary election held in 2001.
A home ministry official said it will propose to field 15 Ansars, five policemen and three BDR personnel at each of the polling centres.
However, the number of security personnel will go up by at least two at the polling centres, already identified as risky.
The number of such centres is about 2,500, added the official.
Apart from deploying the members of law enforcing agencies, troops will also be deployed across the country from today (Thursday) to step up security in the run-up to the voting.
The country witnessed the end of two-year state of emergency rule Wednesday ahead of the parliamentary election aimed at restoring democracy.
Expectation is running high among the countrymen, investors and diplomats that the polls will put an end to the country's history of street politics, sporadic bouts of military rule and endemic graft, which have held it back from tackling massive poverty and ending dependence on foreign aid.