Despite the BNP central committee's firm declaration of not participating in the five city corporation elections, including in the Barisal City Corporation (BCC), several former and current BNP leaders and activists are in the race after the withdrawal date.
Their participation contradicts the party's decision not to participate in any election under the Awami League government.
The Barisal city election is set to take place on June 12.
Earlier, a similar trend was seen in Gazipur city polls, following which the BNP expelled 29 of its leaders for life vying for councillor posts. Twelve of them won the election that took place on May 25.
The Election Commission distributed symbols among the seven mayor aspirants and other candidates on Friday. Soon after the distribution of the symbols, the candidates officially started campaigns in accordance with the election rules and regulations.
Although 21 councillor candidates from the BNP withdrew from the race, eight are still among the 116 valid candidates vying for 30 wards under the BCC.
In addition, three female BNP activists are also competing for ward councillor posts reserved for women among the 42 candidates vying for the ten available posts.
The eight BNP leaders contesting the councillor posts are Habibur Rahman (Tipu), Selim Howladar, Harun Or Rasid, Ziaul Haque, Jaber Abdullah Sadi, Shah Aminul Islam, Feroze Ahmed, and Md Humayun Kabir.
Besides, Jahanara Begum, Majida Borhan and Rashida Parveen continue to contest for the reserved female councillor posts.
In the 2018 election held on July 30, BNP-nominated mayoral candidate Mujibur Rahman Sarwar contested the polls. He later boycotted the results after bagging only 13,135 votes in 107 out of 123 polling centres, while Awami League's Serniabat Sadiq Abdullah got 1,07,353 votes.
Two other mayoral candidates from the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) and Islami Andolan Bangladesh also boycotted the results alleging vote rigging. On the other hand, Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal and Jatiya Party demanded that the returning officer suspend the polls.
This time, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has clarified that the party will not take part in the city polls.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has expressed its resolve to make it free and fair, and prevent any kind of irregularities.
During a meeting with the candidates in Barisal on Sunday, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal said the EC will take action if any supporter of any candidate breaks the electoral codes. He urged the citizens to exercise vigilance and inform the presiding officer about any irregularities.
On the other hand, Election Commissioner Md Alamgir during a press briefing at Nirbachan Bhaban in the capital's Agargaon lauded the role of all officials concerned, candidates and voters for making the Gazipur city polls a success.
While some have attributed the fairness of the Gazipur polls to the new US visa policy, Commissioner Alamgir responded: "We have not yet conducted any research on the impact of the visa policy. You mentioned that it was published in the newspapers on the polling day, but voting had already commenced by then. So, how could it have influenced the election?"
