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Polls system
FROM PAGE 16
candidates remain proactive and they put extra effort to make their relatives and friends cast votes for them, he added.
“So, the [average] voter turnout of national elections can in no way surpass that of municipality polls,” he further said.
Akbar also said the EC should examine the turnout at each polling centre before declaring the election result.
If the turnout is 100 percent, 98 percent or even 95 percent, they should immediately suspend the voting on the grounds of “false votes”, he said.
If the EC can monitor voting results this way, then many irregularities will be found, he added.
On the use of electronic voting machines, he said it seems effective considering the technology.
However, there are controversies in many countries regarding the EVMs and it is necessary to be cautious about their use in Bangladesh, he added.
Ganosamhati Andolon Chief Coordinator Zonayed Saki said at present the countrymen are experiencing an “authoritarian electoral system”, adding that vote rigging had taken place in different elections. But people were unable to unearth the secret behind it because various confusions have risen.
He alleged that under the present situation, voters found it difficult to go to the polling centres.
Even if they could reach, there were “helpers” to stamp on the ballot paper or push the button on electronic voting machines, he added.
Terming election as the “first effective step” of democracy, Shujan Secretary and good governance campaigner Badiul Alam Majumdar said if polls are not held in fair manner then the overall democratic system will collapse.
Election is the only way to transit power in a peaceful manner. If that peace is obstructed, the country’s future will face uncertainty, he said.
At the programme, Shujan, as part of its council manifesto, placed a 20-point proposal to bring reforms in the country’s political arena.
One of the points is to bring changes in the country’s electoral system by introducing a “proportional representation” electoral system and make required amendments to the related laws to “regain people’s trust” regarding elections.
Shujan President and former caretaker government adviser M Hafizuddin Khan said polls is a major component to ensure good governance but the country’s electoral system is now being marred.
“There is doubt whether we will see any free and fair election in the future,” he said, adding that, if needed, the countrymen have to work hard to re-establish a fair polls atmosphere in the country.
Former cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumdar said making public polls candidates’ affidavits is a major reform in the country’s electoral system and Shujan’s campaign was significant behind it.
Referring to low voter turnouts, Supreme Court lawyer Advocate Rana Dasgupta said the country’s political parties should take people’s lack of enthusiasm in exercising voting rights into consideration with importance and find the reasons behind it.
Leftist politician Comrade Khalequzzaman of Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal and Mohammad Nazrul Islam of Bangladesh Kalyan Party also spoke at the programme.

US Border Patrol to send Tactical Unit officers to ‘sanctuary cities’
Reuters, Washington
The Trump administration is deploying highly trained officers to boost arrests of unauthorized immigrants in a number of cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, the latest move in a battle against localities that adopt “sanctuary” policies to protect them from deportation.
Members of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Border Patrol Tactical Unit will be among the officers deployed to cities to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. They will also be sent to San Francisco, Atlanta, Houston, Boston, New Orleans, Detroit and Newark, New Jersey, CBP spokesman Lawrence Payne said in a statement on Friday.
The Tactical Unit’s members undergo a “grueling” training program designed to “mirror aspects” of U.S. Special Operation Forces courses, according to details about the program published on the CBP website. The unit was launched in 1984 in response to rioting at immigration detention facilities.
Scores of Democrat-controlled cities and counties have adopted policies to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, making them a target for Republican President Donald Trump, who has made immigration a centerpiece of his re-election campaign.
The move to boost ICE support in the targeted cities, first reported by the New York Times, marks the latest escalation in the administration’s fight against these localities and comes just days after the Department of Justice filed lawsuits against the state of New Jersey and King County, Washington, where Seattle is located.
The Department of Homeland Security said last week it would bar New Yorkers from obtaining new and renewal Global Entry passes and from participating in three programs that permit faster travel between the United States, Canada and Mexico, which could affect hundreds of thousands of travelers.
“ICE is utilizing CBP to supplement enforcement activity in response to the resource challenges stemming from sanctuary city policies,” ICE acting Director Matthew T. Albence said. “As we have noted for years, in jurisdictions where we are not allowed to assume custody of aliens from jails, our officers are forced to make at-large arrests of criminal aliens who have been released into communities.”
The deployment will run from February through May, the New York Times reported, citing a CBP email.
The move drew criticism from some, including Ayanna Pressley, a Democratic congresswoman from Massachusetts whose district includes Boston.
“Let us be clear, this move has nothing to do with public safety, but rather serves only to further the Trump Administration’s agenda to intimidate and retaliate against cities that uphold the dignity and humanity of our immigrant neighbors,” she said in an emailed statement. “We will not stand for this.”