Awami League candidates concerned over independent contenders

The ruling Awami League has adopted a strategy to field independent candidates, aiming to enhance competitiveness in the upcoming 12th parliamentary election and ensure a 50 per cent voter turnout. This move has elicited mixed reactions among party contenders. 

However, numerous candidates participating in the upcoming election are advocating for the exclusion of independent contenders from the competition.  

Independent candidates have posed challenges for the 14-party Alliance and its allies in various constituencies. Despite this, the top leadership of the Awami League believes that independent candidates will contribute to establishing the credibility of the election both domestically and internationally. 

Sources at Awami League said several central leaders and ministers have informed the party president Sheikh Hasina about their concerns over independent candidates.

Several leaders of the 14-party Alliance partners also expressed their disagreement on Awami League’s stance on independent candidates during the meeting at Ganabhaban in Dhaka on Monday, but prime minister Sheikh Hasina made it clear that she would not personally request anyone to step down.

For this reason, no independent candidate has faced organisational action yet, and the Awami League is not currently contemplating such measures..

Though four candidates of Awami League have been left out of the contest, party policymakers are less worried about these seats since there are independent candidates.

According to several policymaking sources of Awami League, the party expected more political parties from opposition alliances would participate in the next election, which BNP seems not to join.  

Awami League also thought renegades from BNP would contest the election either interdependently or with other parties’ tickets, but, finally, the number of people and parties did not join the election as expected. As a result, the Awami League took a strategy to allow independent candidates from the party in a bid to boost competition in the election.

According to the election commission, 747 people, mostly from Awami League, collected nominations to contest the next election independently. The commission cancelled candidacy of 423 people and declared candidacy of 324 people valid, including several incumbent Awami League lawmaker who were deprived of the party nomination.

A central leader of Awami League told Prothom Alo there are independent candidates across the country, but complications arose over independent candidates in Chattogram, Cumilla, Barishal, Pirojpur, Faridpur, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Shariatpur and Madaripur as many central leaders are covertly encouraging and assisting independent candidates.

The incumbent lawmaker from Chattogram-12 constituency and chief whip of parliament, Shamsul Haque Chowdhury could not get the party ticket. So Shamsul Haque Chowdhury is running for the next election independently and has already sparked discussion by violating electoral code of conducts. Awami League nominated Chattogram district south unit president Motaherul Islam to contest the next election from Chattogram-12.

There are concerns over the long feud between Kazi Zafar Ullah and Mojibur Rhaman Chowdhury alias Nixon in Faridpur Awami League, as well as between the party candidate and state minister Zahid Faruque, and former Barishal City mayor and independent candidate  Serniabat Sadiq Abdullah at Barishal Sadar. Many party leaders said such feud is also arising in other constituencies.

In 1996 and 2001, Awami League candidate Salahuddin Ahmed conceded defeat from the Cox’s Bazar-1 constituency, and since then, Zafar Alam has been the member of parliament for this area. Despite Salahuddin Ahmed securing the party ticket this time, his nomination was canceled due to defaulted loans. Consequently, Awami League is now relying on Zafar Alam for this constituency.

Another Awami League lawmaker, Mamunur Rashid from Noakhali-3, also lost his nomination due to loan default. However, the party has two independent candidates in this seat.

Traditionally, Awami League had left the Kishoreganj-3 seat to the Jatiya Party general secretary for three consecutive terms. This time, Awami League fielded its candidate for this constituency, leading to the cancellation of the nomination of Awami League candidate Nasirul Haque. While negotiations on seat-sharing could have resulted in Awami League relinquishing this seat, the current situation has worked in favour of the ruling party.

Awami League nominated its international affairs secretary Shammi Ahmed for the Barishal-4 constituency, but her nomination was cancelled over citizenship. Yet the ruling party is a little relaxed since incumbent lawmaker Pankaj Nath is contesting the election independently.

In response to a question regarding the complexity arising from independent candidates, Awami League Joint Secretary General Mahbub Ul Alam Hanif informed Prothom Alo that independent candidates could contribute to making the elections more festive. While acknowledging the potential benefits, he also noted that there might be some challenges associated with this decision given the prevailing circumstances.