The landslide victory of 18-party-backed candidate M A Mannan over his rival 14-party backed Azmatullah Khan in the first mayoral election to newly created Gazipur City Corporation is considered as the writing on the wall for the ruling party. It has reset the equation of national politics.
According to the unofficial results declared on early Sunday, BNP-led 18-party alliance backed candidate MA Mannan won a landslide victory in the Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) election defeating his rival Awami League-supported candidate by 1,06,577 votes.
Talking to The Independent leading political analysts of the country said that the result is the outcome of the people’s sentiment against the present government.
Eminent jurist Barrister Rafique-ul Huq said that the people have gave their verdict not only against the defeated candidate but also against the parties which backed him.
“It was the reflection of people’s attitude” he said.
But he also opposed the view that the election was not free and fair.
“The opposition made such allegation just for the sake of opposition”, he observed.
Brushing aside the argument that since the city corporation polls were free and fair, the national elections would also be free and fair under this government, the eminent jurist said, Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) poll is a local government election, it should not be treated as if it is national election, Huq said, adding, “The national election must be hold under the caretaker government.”
“The opposition would not accept the national election under the present government. To avoid any untoward situation, the government should reach a consensus to hold national election under caretaker government or other impartial form,” the noted lawyer observed.
Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), said, national issues were given priority during the GCC election.
“Though the GCC was local government election, but the national issues were given priority. The people have taken anti-government stand in the GCC election.”
The voters had got negative approach from the government side during the selection of candidate, he said, adding, “the ruling party didn’t evaluate the people’s choice. They nominated one candidate in the GCC poll against the demand of the local people.”
The government has tried to manipulate the GCC election using administration, he alleged, adding, “the government has directed the national board of revenue (NBR) to confiscate the bank accounts of opposition’s GCC mayor candidate just before the election day. The opposition was trying to maintain the continuity of winning of the four city corporations election.”
The ruling party needed to take lesson from these elections, Iftekharuzzaman observed.
He further said that the election commission has conducted the GCC election successfully, but they failed to keep away the local government elections from partisan.
“Many national leaders took part in the campaign with national issues. The EC could take strong steps in this regard,” the TIB ED said.
“The ruling party can say there will be no problem for holding national election under an elected government as the city corporation elections held under free and fair environment without interruption of the government. This debate may continue, but both the major parties have to reach a conclusion about caretaker government for holding the national election through dialogue,” he said in reply to a query.
Noted lawyer Dr Shahdeen Malik said, “It is the clear confirmation of the popular perception that Awami League as a ruling party is not running the country well.
Whether such result will affect the national election, he said, “Obviously such result is the forbearer of the result of the national election.”
Badiul Alam Majumder, secretary of Sushasaner Jonney Nagorik (SUJAN) said the success of 18-party backed candidate was not unexpected as they won the mayoral posts in the four other city corporation elections.
The verdict proved that the pro-democratic people ultimately got the victory, he said adding that the GCC result also proved that the people expressed their resentment to the government through ballots.
M A Mannan polled 365,444 votes at all the 392 centres with his logo ‘television’ against Azmat who managed to draw 258,867 votes with his ‘inkpot-pen’ symbol, Returning Officer Matiar Rahman said at the Bangataj auditorium in Gazipur on early Sunday while declaring the unofficial results.
A total of 6,54,094 votes were cast which is 65 per cent of total turnout and 18,046 votes were rejected, Matiar said.
-With The Independent input
