The ruling Awami League came out on top in the first ever partisan municipality polls held yesterday in 234 areas of the country with a sweeping victory over arch rival BNP.
According to unofficial results, mayoral candidates running with the Awami League’s “country boat” symbol won in 178 municipalities, seven of them elected uncontested. On the other hand, those contesting with BNP’s “sheaf of paddy” won in just 23. Main opposition parliament Jatiya Party bagged just one.
Independent candidates, most of whom are renegades from the Awami League and the BNP, have bagged 25 seats.
Results of polls in Barguna and Betagi municipalities – both in the southern district of Barguna – were hanging as the Election Commission (EC) did not make any decisions on the fate of the two polling centres in these areas where voting had been suspended due to violence.
Outcomes of polling in Thakurgaon, Noakhali’s Choumuhani, Kurigram’s Ulipur and Nilphamari’s Syedpur were held back until last night.
The EC yesterday cancelled voting in entirety in the Madhabdi municipality of Narshingdi district as all the 12 polling centres in this area were besieged by violence.
People from 233 municipalities yesterday also voted to elect general ward councillors and female councillors in reserved seats. But these polls were being held in non-partisan lines as usual.
Just like the two recent local government elections – the upazila elections in 2014 and the city corporation elections in Dhaka and Chittagong in April this year – reports of violence came in from at least one-fifth of the voting areas.
In one such violence in Satkania of Chittagong between the supporters of two ward councillor candidates, a man named Nurul Islam, 40, got killed. Until last updates, this is the only place where political workers made use of firearms.
Supporters of rival candidates blasted crude bombs near at least seven polling centres in Jessore district in which at least five people got injured including children.
At least 40 mayoral candidates yesterday withdrew from the election race bringing allegations of rigging in their constituencies.
Interestingly, alongside BNP candidates, rebel Awami League candidates, rebel BNP candidates from across the country, an Awami League nominated candidate also pulled out of the race in a municipality in the southern Borguna district.
The EC suspended voting in 50 polling centres in total due to allegations of rigging and violence. Of these, the highest 10 were in Choumuhoni. Second highest five came in Syedpur.
In Puthia of Rajshahi, BGB members held three journalists of private satellite broadcaster ATN News for breaking polls code as they entered a polling centre without permission. Later they were released upon payment of Tk5,000 fine each.
In Rangunia of Chittagong, a mobile court jailed a councillor candidate for two years for trying to snatch ballot boxes from a polling centre minutes before the end of voting.
The EC sent five policemen on suspension for being negligent while on duty in two polling centres in Kalkini of Madaripur and three polling centres in Chandnaish of Chittagong. An EC official said the commission had withdrawn all law enforcers from those centres.
In Jessore, several election officials were suspended for starting vote count before time.
Ulipur results held back
Although vote counting of all the available polling centres was finished by yesterday evening, the local returning officer could not announce the results in Ulipur municipality in Kurigram district because the commission had earlier suspended voting in two centres due to violence.
In this municipality, BNP candidate Tariq Abul Ala, with 7,767 votes, was ahead of his nearest contestant Sajjadur Rahman Saju, an independent candidate who secured 5,588 votes.
Since the difference between their votes was 2,179 and the number of voters in those two polling centres was 3,898, the local election office could not announce the results.
Complaining spree
Yesterday, for the first time in history, Awami League, BNP and the Jatiya Party went to the EC on a day of an election to officially complain against each other.
Soon after voting began yesterday, the three parties sent their own delegations to the commission.
The Awami League told the commission that the BNP-Jamaat clan had been trying to influence voting in many areas, particularly in their strongholds.
The BNP on the other hand alleged that ruling party men had occupied more than 50% of the polling centres across the country.
Main opposition in parliament Jatiya Party said they had noticed irregularities in at least 176 polling centres and said “this was not a fair election.”
However, none of the delegations got to meet the chief election commissioner. They held meetings with the other commissioners.
EC nonchalant
In the official press briefing in the evening, when asked whether they were satisfied, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad said: “We did everything we could. There is nothing to be satisfied or dissatisfied about. We will keep on doing our work. People will evaluate us. Examinees cannot give marks to their own scripts; the others do it.”
However, referring to the sporadic incidents of violence in some places, the CEC said violence had become a culture in the country’s politics and recovering from that will take time.