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2008 JS Polls

DGFI blacklisted 144 politicians

Star Report
A few months before the December 2008 parliamentary polls, Directorate General of Forces InteUigence had blacklisted 144 politicians of both Awami League and BNP and asked the parties not to nominate them for the electoral race.
A US diplomatic cable posted on WikiLeaks noted DGFI tried to manipulate poUtics throughout the tenure of Fakhruddin-led caretaker regime and it handed the two parties the names on the “negative list”.
Two separate cables from then US ambassador in Dhaka James F Moriarty had mentions of AL receiving 42 names and BNP 102.The military intelligence agency did not want to see the politicians get nominations from the parties primarily because they were "tainted by corruption."
However, identities of the 144 "blacklisted" were not revealed in the cables, dated 27 October, 2008.
But according to one dispatch, the embassy got the names. "Included in the list, a copy of which the Embassy obtained, were several relatives of Sheikh Hasina who have been among her stron-gestpoliticalsupporters.”
It quoted AL's the then acting general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam as saying "One early sign of Sheikh Hasina's degree of commitment to weeding out at least some corruption-tainted political cronies will be the Awami League's list of nominees runningforParliament."
Ashraf, however, said DGFI did not demand AL refrain from nominating everyone on the list; instead, he predicted
party chief Hasina would accede to denying nominations to as little as 30 percent of those named.
A cable noted, internally, former "reformist" elements of BNP worried about their future as the BNP leadership was deciding its response to the "negative list" of candidates to be barred from the election.
Some BNP supporters feared that by excluding those politicians, and given the tenuous standing within the party of the reformist faction, the BNP might have difficulty in putting forward a credible slate of candidates.
Moreover, in several key areas, including Sylhet, Chittagong, and Dhaka, BNP's local party structures had suffered serious divisions between reformists and loyalists.
As a result, some BNP supporters then believed their party had no chance of winningin December, 2008 polls.
Also, some argued that the
party should seek a delay or cancellation of elections as a means to ensure the participation of leaders accused in graft cases, according to the cables.
During an army-led crackdown on politicians immediately after the slapping of state of emergency, a large number of politicians from all the political parties, chiefly AL and BNR were arrested.
Corruption cases, mainly on charge of amassing wealth beyond known income, were filed against them and many were handed down punishment by special trial court that acted upon special power rules.
The then caretaker government moved to keep off the convicted and the detained from the December 29 parliamentary elections. As some “big shots" failed to get nominations, their close relatives contested from their constituencies and some won in the polls.