The third election to Narayanganj City Corporation will be held today amid fear of violence, irregularities and rigging.
Two major candidates passed their last hours in closed-door meetings with polling agents, party leaders and activists while independent candidate Taimur Alam Khandaker expressed his fear for administration favouring his main rival Selina Hayat Ivy, the candidate backed by the ruling Awami League.
Ivy’s greatest concern was, however, the non-cooperation of a section of her own party people loyal to local lawmaker Shamim Osman.
Election officials said that they had identified some areas as ‘risky’ for violence based on intelligence and complaints from the candidates.
They said that councillor elections at different wards might get troubling and law enforcers outlined security plans accordingly.
According to the Election Commission, 5.17 lakh people have enrolled to cast their vote to elect the city mayor and councillors for 27 general wards and nine reserved positions for women.
Seven candidates are contesting for the mayoral post while 180 candidates are running for the 36 positions of councillors for general and reserved wards.
Ivy was seeking her third consecutive term as mayor as she was elected twice — in 2011 as an independent candidate, and in 2016 as an Awami League candidate.
She was busy appointing polling agents on Saturday.
When approached by New Age Saturday, she said that she could not talk as it would be a breach of the electoral code of conduct.
During her election campaigns, she, however, feared violence in elections and alleged that many of her opponents became united to defeat her.
Taimur, who was expelled from opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party posts for contesting in polls ignoring the party decision, on Saturday morning at a press conference reiterated the allegation of harassment on his supporters and activists.
He also expressed his determination to stay in the race irrespective of whatever happened on the voting day. ‘We will stay in the election even if we get arrested,’ he said.
Taimur alleged that the Election Commission had instructed to suspend the use of close circuit cameras at different polling centres in an attempt to manipulate the result.
He also alleged that outsiders staying in Narayanganj ahead of voting posed a security threat for the voters.
Taimur demanded the reinstallation of close circuit cameras at the polling stations and actions against outsiders.
NCC polls returning officer Mahfuza Akter told New Age that all the polling centres did not have CCTV camera supports and electoral rules did not allow the presence of such cameras inside the centres.
‘We have asked to keep the CCTV cameras inside the centres non-operational during the voting. CCTV cameras outside the centres can remain operational,’ she said.
Mahfuza said that there were no major incidents of violence during the electioneering and that the authorities took all possible measures to keep the election violence-free.
The election officials said that they have identified some areas in the city, Bandar and Siddhirganj as risky for violence.
‘Ward no 16 and 18 in Chasara, ward no 19, 22 and 23 in Bandar and some parts of Siddhirganj can be troublesome,’ Mahfuza said.
She said that they have outlined the security plans for the pre-poll, voting day and post-poll situations.
Sharing some details about the security plans, Narayanganj police superintendent Zayedul Alam said that no outsiders would be allowed to stay in Narayanganj on the voting day and thus all residents aged over 18 had been asked to carry their national identity cards with them on the voting day.
He said that around 5,000 members of law enforcement agencies had been deployed across the city alongside 14 platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh forces for the voting day.
The police officer told New Age that there would be police mobile teams, check-points at main roads and alleyways of neighbourhoods to check NID cards and trace outsiders.
Taimur told New Age that police started raiding the houses of his polling agents and detained at least 10 of his supporters and activists on Friday night and Saturday.
‘Police raided the house of my chief polling agent, ATM Kamal, on Saturday evening. He went into hiding, police picked up his car’s driver,’ Taimur complained.
Earlier, 17 activists were arrested and 10 more were detained on Friday night and Saturday, said the independent candidate.
Kamal is Taimur’s chief election campaign coordinator and general secretary of BNP’s Narayanganj city unit.
Taimur said that police intensified harassments and raids on the night before the election.
Asked about the complaint, police super Zayedul said that they did not know who were Taimur’s polling agents since he did not provide any list to the election authorities
The police officer said that he did not have any idea about such raids and arrests and the independent candidate had been making this kind of ‘baseless allegations’ repeatedly for the last few days.
City dwellers said that major concerns of violence came from some councillor candidates, who might cause security threats to whisk off voting in their favour.
The city elections have dramatic developments as recently Ivy labelled Shamim as ‘godfather’ in one of her campaigns and claimed that Taimur was the candidate of the Osman family.
A clothing trader Minhaz Aman said that many development projects faced interruptions due to the dispute between Ivy and Shamim Osman.
Shamim in a press conference on Monday asked the activists of the ruling party and its associate bodies to work for the party’s electoral symbol boat, without naming Ivy.
Civil society platform Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik, meanwhile feared that the Election Commission might change the result of the city elections by manipulating the Electronic Voting Machine.
The five other mayoral candidates in the election are -Khilafat Majlish-backed AMB Sirajul Mamun, Islami Andolan Bangladesh -backed Masum Billah, Bangladesh Kelafat Andolan’s Jasim Uddin, Bangladesh Kallyan Party’s Rashed Ferdous and independent candidate Kamrur Islam.
2022-04-09 16:36:52
2022-04-09 06:36:52