Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (SHUJAN) Secretary Dr Badiul Alam Majumdar has said that Thursday's election to the Gazipur City Corporation lacked acceptability as the voters did not have an appropriate alternative mayoral candidate.
“If there is not any appropriate alternative candidate (not like any dummy), the voters cannot implement a choice,” he said while talking to Dhaka Tribune on Friday afternoon.
He added: “Since it was not an acceptable election, we cannot say the Gazipur City Corporation election was fair and impartial.
“The election was held peacefully because of the absence of a candidate from the biggest opposition [BNP]. The ruling party men, law enforcement agencies as well as the administration did not need to interfere, which they did in 2018 [national election].”
The civil society leader said: “The ruling party men were in fear of paying the price if they got involved in any kind of election engineering after the new US visa policy for Bangladesh [issued on Wednesday].”
He added that even if all the city elections are held peacefully, “we cannot expect a national election in this way as a shift of power will happen then. Also, an imbalance of power will prevail at that time under ‘not an impartial government'. The law enforcement agencies will be under the control of the incumbent cabinet. So, a peaceful national election cannot be expected under a partisan government.”
During the GCC polls that saw a 48.75% voter turnout, independent candidate Zayeda Khatun, the mother of expelled Awami League leader Jahangir Alam, defeated AL-nominated Azmat Ullah Khan in a competitive vote.
The Election Commission and observers said the polls were conducted smoothly in a peaceful and festive manner. No incident of violence was reported from any centre of Gazipur.
