The ruling Awami League has significantly made up for the grounds that it had lost in the first two phases of the upazila polls, clinching a massive majority in the fourth phase amid widespread violence and rigging.
Unofficial results suggest that out of the 91 upazilas that voted yesterday, the ruling party-backed contenders have bagged 53 chairman seats and those backed by BNP only 24.
The landslide result in favour of the Awami League stands in stark contrast with the outcomes of the previous three phases, in the first two of which the BNP came out on top by narrow margins. In the third, however, the Awami League fought back by clinching a slim majority.
The rebel candidates, who have been big headaches for both the major parties, have once again failed to impress. Two rebels, one each from the ruling party and the BNP, have emerged victorious in yesterday’s voting.
Candidates backed by BNP’s ally Jamaat-e-Islami, many of whose top leaders have been convicted for war crimes, have won in only five upazilas. For the party, this result is virtually a continuation from the last three phases – 12 in the first phase, and eight seats each in the second and third.
However, the right wing Islamist party, whom the International Crimes Tribunal has labelled as a criminal organisation in some of its verdicts, has once again done well in the areas known as its strongholds.
In Satkania of Chittagong and Zianagar of Pirojpur, Jamaat-backed contenders have bagged all the posts in the upazila parishad panels, namely chairman, vice-chairman and vice-chairwoman.
In Zianagar, home of death row war criminal Delawar Hossain Sayedee, his son Masud-Bin-Sayedee has emerged victorious as chairman.
In eight of the districts out of the 41 that voted yesterday, the Awami League came up with a clean sweep, with the candidates it backed winning chairman posts in two upazilas in Jessore, two in Bagerhat, six in Khulna, four in Patuakhali, three in Bhola, three in Barisal, four in Jhalakathi and two in Feni.
Interestingly, in Patuakhali, Bhola, Barisal, Jhalakathi and Feni, all the contenders backed by the BNP and most of the rebel candidates from both the tents boycotted the polls alleging irregularities and demanded fresh voting.
For Bhola and Barisal, the boycotting – within a couple of hours of the start of voting – by the BNP-backed candidates is an exact repetition of the previous three phases.
A total of seven upazilas in Chittagong voted to elect their chairmen in the fourth phase yesterday. None of those posts went to the BNP-backed candidates. Five were bagged by ruling party-backed contenders while two went to Jamaat-backed runners.
In the first three phases, BNP-backed candidates won in a total of three upazilas in Chittagong district.
Awami League’s ally JP (Monju), whose candidates have not won a single chairman post in the previous phases, have come out on top with a full panel in Bhandaria upazila in Pirojpur. There was no Awami League-backed candidate in this upazila.
After failing to win anything in the third phase, a candidate backed by former military dictator HM Ershad’s Jatiya Party has won a chairman seat in Tarail of Kishoreganj.
Only two independent candidates in Habiganj Sadar and Bhairab of Kishoreganj have managed to impress voters in the latest spell of elections.
