A total of 152 upazilas across the country will go to polls in the first phase on May 8. The elections in 492 upazilas in the country will take place in four phases.
The Election Commission (EC) earlier announced the second and third phases polls schedules of 161 upazilas on May 21 and 112 Upazila Parishads on May 29 next. The fourth phase Upazila elections are likely to be held on June 5.
The government and the commission are committed to holding the upazila polls in a free and fair manner. The EC has already proved its impartiality, boldness, and capability by holding free, fair, and credible January 7 national parliamentary elections.
We, therefore, can expect the upazila polls will also be held in a free, fair, and peaceful manner. The ruling Awami League has decided not to field party candidates and allocate the party’s election symbol ‘Boat’ in any local government polls, including the upcoming elections to city corporations, municipalities, and upazila parishads. On the other hand, after boycotting the national elections, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)) has now decided not to join upazila parishad polls race under the incumbent government.
Therefore, there was no political influence in the local government elections.
AL high command warned the ministers and members of parliament (MPs) not to influence or interfere in upazila elections. But, the fact is that violating the high command’s order, the ministers, ruling party MPs and senior leaders are fielding their kin to contest the elections.
This obviously sparked the annoyance of the party high command at some ministers and MPs’ activities as some ministers and AL lawmakers were seen announcing the names of their close relatives as chairman candidates for the upcoming upazila polls.
This obviously sparked the
annoyance of the party high
command at some ministers
and MPs’ activities.
As a result, the ruling party is struggling to stop its MPs from backing the candidates. The party high command is rigid on this issue and on Friday instructed ministers and lawmakers to make sure their family members and relatives stay off or pull out of the upazila polls.
In the past years, ministers, AL MPs, senior leaders and its associate organisations got involved in internal feuds that more often than not, turned violent centring the local body elections. Many people mostly activists of the AL were killed and many others injured in separate clashes between supporters of rival candidates in different districts during the upazila and UP polls. Attacks and exchange of fire over elections became a daily phenomena while people got panicked over the killing and violence. Defying party’s decisions and order and repeated warnings, a large number of AL leaders filed nominations, contested the polls and clashed with party nominees.
When the ruling AL was struggling to resolve the intra-party conflict, local government elections intensified clashes and feuds at the grassroots level. As a result, grassroots people were disappointed in the past.
We noticed that in most cases, the dedicated, honest, and sincere leaders were excluded from the final nomination list while the influential, the corrupts and hoodlums under the umbreala of local lawmakers, obtained the party ticket to contest the local body polls. Such attitudes towards dedicated, honest and clean image leaders made the grassroots activists frustrated.
Effective and meaningful local government institutions, especially Upazila Parishad and Union Parishad, have become crucial for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We think ministers, AL MPs and senior leaders must follow the high command directives and they will not in any way meddle in upazila elections.