A total of eight mayoral candidates and 334 councillor candidates on Sunday submitted nomination papers for contesting the Narayanganj City Corporation polls, slated for October 30. A total of 56 women have submitted nomination papers for the nine posts of councillors reserved for women.
Awami League’s Shamim Osman, Selina Hayat Ivy and SM Akram, and BNP’s Taimur Alam Khandaker submitted nomination papers before the deadline.
Habibullah Kanchpuri, a leader of the Ulema League, Atiqullah Jibon, Atiqur Rahman Nannu Munshi and Abul Hossain also submitted the nomination papers to run in the mayoral race.
The nomination papers of mayoral and councillor candidates will be scrutinised on October 4 and 5, and the last date for withdrawal of the papers is October 12.
Dhaka division’s deputy election commissioner, Biswas Lutfor Rahman, also returning officer of the polls, received the nomination papers at Shahid Zia Hall in the city. Several hundred supporters were seen waiting outside the hall when the candidates were submitting nomination papers.
A large contingent of law enforcers were deployed in and around the hall.
Three of the leading candidates — Ivy, president of the AL’s Narayanganj city unit, SM Akram, president of AL’s Narayanganj district unit, and Taimur, president pf the BNP’s Narayanganj district unit — demanded reshuffle in the district administration and deployment of troops to create a level playing field for the election.
But Shamim Osman, convening committee member of the AL’s district unit, demanded neither deployment of troops nor reshuffle in the administration. He, however, said he would welcome deployment of the army for the election.
BNP’s Taimur Alam Khandaker, also the former chairman of Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation, submitted his nomination paper at about 10:00 in the morning along with some of his fellow party leaders.
He said that there was no level playing field in Narayanganj for holding a free and fair election, and demanded deployment of soldiers and reshuffle in the local administration.
When asked whether he would withdraw from the election if a level-playing field is not created, Taimur said that the Nagar Unnayan Committee, under whose banner he was contesting the polls, would take a decision in this regard later.
When asked whether he would accept the use of Electronic Voting Machines in the polls as his party, the BNP, has all along been opposing their use, he said that his party and the committee would decide.
Though there is an undercurrent of discord inside the BNP over Taimur’s candidature, no dissident candidate submitted nomination papers for the mayoral election.
Ivy submitted her papers at about 2:30pm. She was accompanied by AL city unit’s president Anwar Hossain, Jubo League district unit’s president Abdul Qadir, Swechchhasebak League district unit’s president Nizamuddin and Narayanganj Nagorik committee’s joint convener Rafiur Rabbi.
Ivy, before submitting the nomination papers, told reporters that she was hopeful of getting her party’s support in contesting the city corporation elections.
When asked what she would do if her party did not extend its support to her, Ivy said, ‘Wait until October 12 to see what happens.’
When asked whether she would contest the election on the ticket of another party if the AL did not support her, Ivy said categorically, ‘I will not quit my party for contesting the city corporation polls by abandoning my beliefs and ideology.’
Referring to local administration, she said, ‘Yes, of course, the administration should be reshuffled for the sake of holding free and fair elections. Particularly the deputy commissioner of Narayanganj district, police superintendent and the officers-in-charge of three thanas under the city must be changed.’
‘As the people have numerous grievances against this administration, their confidence will rise if it’s reshuffled,’ she told reporters. ‘Troops deployment is the people’s demand. It will help to create a level playing field if the army is deployed 15 days before the elections.’
Shamim Osman — accompanied by joint convener Awami League district unit’s Md Mofizul Islam, former lawmaker Golam Murshed Farooqui and AL city unit’s secretary Khokan Saha — submitted his nomination papers at about 3:00pm.
‘I do not have any objections to the local administration as I am not going to depend upon it in the elections,’ he told reporters in reply to a question.
When asked about his party’s nomination, Osman replied, ‘The party will give nomination to my people, not to me.’
He said he would withdraw from the polls if the party did not support him. ‘I will then work for the candidate supported by my party.’
The newly formed city corporation encompasses an area of 100.19 square kilometres and has 27 general wards. A total of 4,03,832 voters reside in the area under the city corporation’s jurisdiction, of whom 2,02,964 are males and 2,00,868 are females.
Votes will cast their ballots at 1,217 polling booths in 163 centres. In addition, there will be one temporary centre with 10 booths.
The Election Commission on Saturday warned seven government officials, including two directors of the Narayanganj election office, for violation of the electoral code of conduct.
They were accompanying local lawmaker Nasim Osman, brother of Shamim Osman, when he visited a development project.
