At the end of Monday’s fifth round of upazila polls, Jamaat-backed vice-chairman contenders stand clear of those backed by its ally BNP, although the latter stood second in the tally of chairman posts.
Out of the 459 vice-chairman posts up for grabbing, Jamaat-backed candidates bagged 115, followed by BNP with 107, both behind Awami League-backed ones, who secured 172.
The right wing Islamist party – often associated with committing war crimes as an organisation in 1971 – has steadily maintained its success with regards to the vice-chairman posts since the first phase of the elections.
In the first phase, contenders backed by Jamaat secured 23 vice-chairman posts, 32 in the second, 23 in the third, 22 in the fourth and 15 in the fifth.
Interestingly, in the first two rounds of voting, BNP not only led the chairman tally, but also those of the vice-chairmen and vice-chairwomen. But as violence and allegations of rigging started mounting from the third phase, Awami League bounced back with more chairman posts. Simultaneously, Jamaat chipped in with more vice-chairman posts that its 18-party alliance partner.
In the first phase, Awami League backed contenders bagged 29 vice-chairman posts, 32 in the second, 28 in the third, 39 in the fourth and the highest 44 in Monday’s fifth round.
On the other hand, for the BNP, it has been a steady journey downwards. In the first round 32 BNP-backed vice-chairman contenders won, 36 won in the second, 18 in the third, 17 in the fourth and the worst of only four in the fifth round.
However, although the BNP fell behind both the Awami League and Jamaat in terms of the vice-chairman posts, the female candidates it had backed had more vice-chairwoman posts than the other two parties.
At the end of the fifth round, BNP-backed contenders backed 189 vice-chairwoman posts, followed by the Awami League with 180 and Jamaat with 33.
