The BNP backed candidates lead in the first phase of upazila elections held on Wednesday with a slight margin.
Candidates loyal to the 19-Party alliance that it leads have won the race for chairman in 43 of the 95 Upazila Parishads.
Aspirants supported by the ruling Awami League have been unofficially elected in 34 sub-districts.
Jamaat-backed candidates won 13 upazilas. Jatiya Party, UPDF and Janasanghati Samity received one post each and independent candidates took 4.Under Dhaka Division, AL backed candidates Sarwar Alam won the chairman post of Bajitpur Upazila Parishad and Karar Saiful Islam in Nikli upazila while BNP backed candidate Saiful Islam won the chairman post of Karimganj upazila.
AL dissident candidates Jane Alam Hero won Kashiani upazila and Ashraful Islam Maksudpur upazila in Gipalganj upazila.
AL backed candidate Toufiquzzaman won the Kalkini upazila in Madaripur district.
In Shariatpur, AL backed candidates Mobarak Ali won Janjira upazila and Alamgir Hossain Majhi won Damuddya upazila while BNP candidate Anwar Hossain got Bhaderganj upazila.
In Rajbari, AL backed candidate Farid Hasan won Pangsha upazila while in Jamalpur BNP backed candidate Faridul Kabir Talukder Sarishabari upazila.
In Netrakona, AL backed candidate won Durgapur upazila while BNP backed candidate Delwar Hossain Dulal won Kendua upazila.
In Dhaka, BNP dissident candidate Quamrul Huda won Doha upazila.
In Narsingdi, AL backed candidate Syed Jabed Hossain won Polash upazila while BNP dissident Ahsan Habib Belabo upazila.
In Gazipur, BNP backed candidate Azizur Rahman won Kapasia upazila.
In Manikganj, BNP candidates Tozammel Haque won Daulatpur upazila, Ali Akbar Shibaloya upazila and Boshir uddin Saturia upazila.
Under Khulna Division, BNP candidate Nurul Haque Mollah won Avoynagar upazila in Jessore while AL candidate Golam Rasul Meherpur Sadar upazila.
Pro-BNP candidates contesting the race of chairmanship in Hathazari and
Mirsarai upazila registered comprehensive win over their rival candidates.
Nurul Amin, the BNP-backed candidate, who got 56,179 votes, clinched the post of chairman in Mirsarai upazila election. He defeated his nearest contestant Gias Uddin, the rival candidate of the ruling party AL, who bagged 42,953 votes.
Meanwhile, Mahbubul Alam Chowdhury of BNP is elected the chairman of
Hathazari. Mahbub received 57, 144 votes beating his rival candidate Abul Monsur of AL who garnered 20, 798 votes.
In Khagrachari, UPDF candidate Chanchumoni Chakma won Sadar upazila, BNP candidate Shahidul Islam Bhuiyan Ramgarh upazila, Bimalkanti of Janosanghati Samity MOhalchari upazila and Tajul Islam of BNP Matiranga upazila.
In Khulna, Jamaat backed candidate AKM Tomijuddin won Koira upazila and AL candidate Dighalia upazila.
BNP candidates Zakir Hossain bagged Kustia Sadar upazila and Badrul Alam Sripur upazila in Magura.
In Jenaidah, Jamaat candidate Tajul Islam won Cotchandpur upazila and AL candidate Jahangir Siddiqui Kaliganj upazila.
Under Rajshahi Division, Jamaat candidates Jahurul Islam Khan won Atgharia upazila in Pabna and Maulana Mokhlesur Rahman Sathia upazila while AL candidate Abul Kashem won Sujanagar upazila in the district.
BNP candidate Abdus Samad won MOhanpur upazila in Rajshahi.
AL candidate Abdul Quader has been elected at Nachole upazila in Chapainawabganj, Jamaat candidate Abdul Ghani at Dupchachia upazila and BNP candidate Ahsanul Toiyab at Sonatola upazila.
In Naogaon, BNP candidates Abdus Sattar has been elected chairman of Mohadebpur upazila and Al Faruq at Raninagar.
In Sirajganj, BNP candidate Ohidul Haque won Royganj upazila.
Under Rangpur Division, AL candidate won Panchagarh Sadar upazila, BNP candidate Abdur Rahman Atoari upazila and Jamaat candidate Shafiullah Boda upazila.
BNP candidates Shahiduzzaman Shah won Khansama and Mamunur Rashid Chowdhury Kaharole upazilas in Dinajpur.
In Kurigram, AL backed candidate Nurunnabi Chowdhury won Bhurungamari upazila.
IN Rangpur, Jamaat candidate Golam Rabbani won Mithapukur and AL candidate Shamsul Quader Taraganj upazilas.
In Gaibandha, BNP candidate Faruq Kabir won Gobindaganj and Jatiya Party candidate Golam Shahid Ranju Saghata upazilas.
In Nilphamari, Jamaat candidate Alhaj Syed Ali won Jaldhaka upazila.
Under Barisal Division, AL candidates Gias Uddin won Lalmohon upazila in Bhola while Shah Alam Khan in Barisal..
Under Sylhet Division, AL candidates Abdul Hamid won Goyainghat upazila and Abul Kalam won South Sunamganj upazila and BNP candidate Sohel Ahmed Biswanath in Sylhet.
In Sunamganj, Abul Kalam Azad of AL won South Sunamganj upazila and in Moulavibazar AL candidate Quamrul Islam won Kulaura upazila.
AL candidate Abdul Hye won Bahubal upazila in Habiganj.
Meanwhile, barring stray incidents, elections to 97 upazila parishads in 40 districts were held peacefully yesterday, with a large turnout of enthusiastic voters.
However, some incidents, like ballot box snatching, poll boycott by Bangladesh Nationalist Party-backed candidates, and allegations of lawmakers trying to influence voting, were reported from different upzilas.
Voting began at 8am, and continued till 4pm, without any break. People in large number began casting their votes right from the beginning. The trend continued till 4pm, as voting continued without any break. Soon after voting was over at 4 pm, the counting began. The government had declared Wednesday a public holiday in all upazilas where voting were held.
Chief election commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad said the first phase of polls were held in a free and fair manner, except for some stray incidents.
“The commission held peaceful elections, though we’ve got reports of violence in some centres. The EC took all-out measures for holding the polls peacefully,” he told reporters at a press briefing, at the EC secretariat.
About the percentage of the turnout, he said, “The commission will not declare the turnout figures on the basis of speculation. After getting official reports, the commission will make an announcement.”
He also said that the commission stopped voting in several upazilas, including Ullahpara, Sonatola in Sirajganj, and Shylakupa upazila in Jhenaidah, Nawabganj.
About the allegation of vote rigging and partisan influence, the CEC said, “The commission can only take action as per the written allegation of the candidates. Only candidates can submit allegation or complaints to the returning officers about the violation of electoral code of conduct. The allegations brought by the political party is not important to us, as this is a non-partisan election.”
As the 10th parliamentary poll was held, on January 5, amid a boycott by Bangladesh Nationalist Party, people were enthusiastic to cast their votes this time.
Apart from this, as about 153 lawmakers were elected without people’s mandate, people failed to exercise their voting rights, to elect their representatives. So, the upazila parishad elections found people casting their votes amid festive mood.
Presence of voters at the polling centres were relatively thin in the beginning, but, by 9 am, the booths had long queues of voters.
Seven candidates, five of them BNP-backed, in three upazilas of Barisal and Pabna, boycotted the polls, alleging ouster of their agents and voters, at different centres.
Voting was suspended at two centres in Shailkupa upazila of Jhenidah and Sonatola upazila of Bogra, after ruling party men allegedly snatched ballot papers and boxes.
A mobile court jailed an Awami League-backed union parishad chairperson in Jhenidah, for three months, and fined Tk. 50,000 for driving out the pro-opposition candidate’s agents.
They alleged that, in presence of election officials, Awami League men were involved in vote rigging in favour of their candidate.
The candidates accused the police and law enforcers of supporting the ruling party-backed candidates.
Apart from these, low turnout was also observed at some upzilas, following untoward incidents, they alleged.
In Sirajganj, Jamaat-Shibir men launched arson attack at a polling centre, following a clash with ruling party activists at Nalshandhya in Ullapara upazila, on Wednesday. Five ballot boxes, containing 1,000 ballot papers, were gutted in the fire, said police.
Presiding officers, assistant presiding officers, and polling officers, as well as agents of candidates were still counting votes, till filing of this report on Wednesday night.
Sirajul Islam, the acting secretary of Election Commission secretariat, claimed that except some stray incidents, elections to 97 upzila parishads were held in a free, fair and impartial manner, with huge turnout of voters.
Replying to a query about the percentage of votes cast, he said it can not be told right now. “As allegations were made in connection with ballot paper snatching, the election commission suspended voting at Mathurapur government polling centre at Shailakupa of Jhenidah, and a centre of Dohar in Dhaka,” he said at a media briefing.
Asked BNP-backed candidates’ allegations about ballot box and ballot paper snatching, Sirajul Islam said all necessary measures had been taken to ensure smooth polls.
“The district administrations have been asked strictly deal with any irregularities, during the voting,” he said, adding that the EC has not received allegations in connection with massive vote rigging.
The BNP alleged that the government is conspiring to manipulate upazila election results to its favour, like it did in the January 5 general elections.
“The ruling party men captured polling centres, ousted BNP-backed candidates’ agents and cast fake votes in different upazilas across the country,” BNP joint secretary-general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said at press briefing at the party’s Naya Paltan central office.
He added the polling agents of BNP-backed contenders were driven out from various centres, since morning. “Ruling party cadres and law enforcers attacked BNP leaders and activists at different places,” he told journalists.
But the Prime Minister’s adviser, HT Imam, ruled out the BNP’s allegation, claiming that elections to 97 upazilas were held in a free, fair and peaceful manner.
“As we had wanted to hold peaceful elections, we have done it. The Awami League has always been fighting to preserve democracy in the country,” he told journalists, at a press briefing held at Awami League President Sheikh Hasina’s political office in Dhanmondi.
Replying to a query about ballot box snatching and vote rigging, he said these were stray incidents and these can happen.
He added that the BNP has been lying blindly since its inception.
Local units of BNP have called day-long hartals on Thursday, in Sujanagar and Shailkupa upazilas, to protest against what they termed as massive vote rigging, ballot box snatching, as well as interference by ministers and ruling party lawmakers.
The local BNP unit in Gournadi upazila of Barisal also called a half- day hartal on Thursday, over vote rigging.
In Bogra, cocktail explosion, ballot boxes snatching, ransacking of polling centre and vote rigging took place at many centres under Sonatola upzila. As a result, voting in some polling centres remained suspended.
BNP-backed candidate, Ahsanul Tyeb Zakir, alleged that the supporters of his rival, AL-backed Ziaul Karim, launched attacks and snatched away ballot boxes from different polling centres.
There have been further reports of allegations raised by pro-BNP candidates, of ruling party lawmakers interfering to secure win for their favoured candidates, as they want to keep upazila parishads under their hold.
During the HM Ershad regime in 1982, the upazila system had been introduced, to take government services at the people’s doorsteps.
The first upazila elections were held in 1985, and the second in 1990. But, after HM Ershad’s fall in December 1990, when the BNP came to power in 1991, it scrapped the upazila system altogether.
In 1996, when Awami League came to power, it reintroduced the upazila system, but elections were not held that time.
When Awami League again won the national polls in 2009 and formed the government, it arranged for upazila elections on January 22 in 2009.
A total of 1,259 candidates contested the election, for 291 posts in the 97 upazilas. Of them, 429 are chairman candidates, and 505 vice-chairman contenders, and 325 vice-chairperson candidates for the posts set aside for women. There are a total of 16,215,437 voters—8,081,384 males and 8,154,053 females—who can exercise their franchise in 42,756 booths of 6,889 polling stations in the 97 upazilas.
On January 19, the EC announced election schedules for 102 upazilas and subsequently postponed polls of Pirganj in Rangpur to February 24, while it suspended elections in four upazilas—Rangpur Sadar, Gangachhara, Pirgachha, and Kawnia in Rangpur—due to delimitation complexities.
Besides, the EC, in the first four phases, declared polls schedules for 380 upazilas out of the country’s 387 upazilas. The second phase polls in 117 upazilas will be held on February 27, while the third phase polls in 83 upazilas on March 15, and the fourth phase polls in 92 upazilas on March 23. The EC has plans to announce the fifth phase election schedule for the remaining upazila parishads this week, and the elections are likely to be held there at the end of March.
As part of the countrywide fourth upazila election, the commission will also arrange elections in a few more upazilas, after the HSC examinations, scheduled to be held in April and May. – Staff Reporter
