Khulna city polls: Candidates spend most money on printing posters, flyers

Mayoral and councillor candidates for Khulna City Corporation polls have to spend the bulk of their campaign funds on printing posters and leaflets. It costs Tk2,000 to print a thousand posters and Tk500 for a thousand leaflets. A candidate has to spend a total of Tk40,000 for 10,000 posters and 20,000 leaflets. The Election Commission has set the ceiling for polls expenditure at Tk15 lakh for a mayoral candidate and Tk2 lakh for a councillor candidate. As many as five mayoral candidates, 147 councillors and 39 reserved councillors are contesting the polls, scheduled for May 15. Munshi Mahbub Alam Sohag, office secretary of Awami League Khulna metropolitan unit, said they had printed 62,000 posters for the mayoral candidate but all of them got damaged in the rain. He said they have to place an order for printing posters again. “If we order more posters it might cross the expenditure ceiling,” he said. Sohag urged the Election Commission to permit printing digital banners instead of posters. Shamsuzzaman Chanchal, deputy office secretary of BNP Khulna metropolitan unit, said they printed 50,000 posters. SM Aminul Islam, an independent councillor of ward no 18, said he is having a thousand posters printed at Tk2,000 and a thousand leaflet at Tk500. There are other expenses such as loudspeakers. “Most of the expenses are being used in printing posters and leaflets. I find it difficult to bear the expenses within the ceiling. The Election Commission should raise the ceiling,” he said. Printing press owners say they have recruited additional workers to tackle the additional work orders ahead of the Khulna City Corporation polls. This photo was taken on April 27, 2018 Hedait Hossain Molla/Dhaka Tribune

Printing presses working round the clock

Printing presses in Khulna are spending a busy time as they are getting huge work orders. Md Sajib, owner Swaras Printing Press, said they are taking minimum charge from the clients. “The cost has come down as we got many work orders during election season. During normal time it costs Tk3-4,000 to print a thousand posters. We are not making much profit,” he said. SM Zakir Hossain, managing director of Modhumoti Printing, said the employees are happy with so many work orders. “But the candidates are having the leaflets printed at a lower rate than the rate fixed by us. The workers might get upset if they do not get extra pay,” he said. Omar Faruk Raju, owner of a digital printing firm, said posters get torn off when it rains. “There is no problem with digital banners. That is why more people have expressed interest in printing digital banners.” Printing press owners said they find it difficult to pay salaries of the employees as there is no work during the rest of the year. But now they have to recruit additional workers. The workers have to work for extra hours so that they can make the deliveries in time. There are around 150 printing presses in Khulna city—27 of them are big. The big printing presses get work orders and they distribute works to the small presses. Mizanur Rahman, owner of Friends’ Printers, said the candidates have already given orders. “The work is underway. We cannot deliver all the posters and leaflets at a time, we are supplying them to the customers in phases,” Mizanur said.