Despite all efforts the ruling Awami League has failed to bring its target amount of voters to the polls. Halfway through the election day, the party’s central leaders were quite frustrated with the turnout.
Over the last few days, they had been instructing local leaders over phone to bring people to the polls.
Several of the party’s senior leaders, including Obaidul Quader, were monitoring the results all day from inside party chief Sheikh Hasina’s political office in Dhanmondi.
Around noon, when they were getting information from all over the country about poor voter turnout, the leaders became quite frustrated.
They began to phone local Awami League leaders, urging them to increase the number of voters at the polling centres. Party associate bodies like the Jubo League and the Chhatra League also phoned their local units for support.
In front of this reporter, Awami League leaders called local leaders and asked them to motivate people to vote, especially female voters. But by the time voting had ended, the party’s activities to increase votes did not appear to have made much of a difference.
The 10th national parliamentary elections were held yesterday amid a boycott by the opposition BNP and its allies. In more than half of the constituencies, candidates have already won uncontested. Awami League had a target at least a 50% voter turnout for the rest of the constituencies.
At 8.30pm yesterday, senior Awami League leader Suranjit Sengupta said that according to the information the party had, the voter turnout was more than 40%.
Awami League said they were satisfied of being able to complete the elections under the adverse circumstances.
Suranjit told the Dhaka Tribune that the election was a challenge for Awami League and that it had succeeded.
“In circumstances where the main opposition is not only boycotting but also trying to foil the polls, we have succeeded in holding them in a free, fair and neutral manner. It is the victory for democracy,” the former minister said.
Suranjit and party presidium member Mohammad Nasim admitted they had made an effort to increase the flow of voters, and they blamed BNP-Jamaat’s sabotage for the low turnout.
However, they said they were happy that the elections had been free and fair. In their view, to complete the elections and overcome the opposition’s bloodshed and violence was a great achievement.
Azadul Islam Azad, general secretary of Awami League Chuadanga unit, told the Dhaka Tribune: “Instructions were given to us from the party’s central committee. We are trying to follow them. But we cannot say that we have succeeded, because the opposition has scared the voters.”
Mohammad Nasim said: “No matter how many votes were cast, our plan was to complete the election and we did that successfully.”
Polls-time minister Tofail Ahmed said the voter turnout was satisfactory. “Foreign observers have also expressed their satisfaction about the turnout,” he said.