Carrying on from the first phase of the upazila parishad polls, the candidates backed by BNP and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami again received better results than the ruling Awami League-backed contenders in yesterday’s second phase of polls.
According to unofficial results from 112 upazila parishads, BNP-backed candidates have clinched chairman posts in 51 upazilas, whilst the Awami League grabbed 44, and Jamaat eight.
The results of two upazilas had not yet been released at the filing of this report at 2:25am as vote counting was still going on.
Just like the first phase of the polls, Ershad’s Jatiya Party once again got just one upazila parishad chairman post this round.
Regional parties Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti (PCJSS) and the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF) have maintained their hold in the upazilas of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. PCJSS has claimed three chairman posts, bettering its first phase result of just one, but UPDF, who got two seats in the first phase, got just one this time around.
In the seven hilly upazilas, none of the candidates backed by the Awami League succeeded in impressing the voters. The candidates backed by the BNP, on the other hand, bagged two seats and one chairman post went to an independent runner.
In Feni – hometown of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia- and Noakhali districts, both traditionally known as BNP strongholds, the ruling party-backed contenders have “unexpectedly” won in five out of the six upazilas in this round. Only one BNP-backed candidate has managed to live up to expectations in these two upazilas.
The voting in these two upazilas has also seen marked violence, especially in the Noakhali sadar seat, where polling has been entirely suspended because the law and order situation had worsened beyond control.
Interestingly, voters in this round of the polls completely rejected the “rebel” candidates from both the Awami League and BNP, despite them having been major headaches for both the parties in the build up to the elections.
Although the scorecard suggests that Jamaat has not done as well as it did in the first phase- winning only eight seats this time- the party however has managed to keep its tight grip in the areas known to be its strongholds, namely Gaibandha, Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Chittagong, Jhenaidah and Satkhira.
Election Commission sources have hinted that two upazilas – Laksham in Comilla and Tarash in Sirajganj – may see the re-holding of elections due to strictly technical and mathematical reasons.
