AL allies prepare for upazila polls, BNP camp undecided

Allies of the Awami League-led 14 Party alliance are prepared to participate in the upazila parishad election as a group. And BNP's allies, who boycotted the Jatiya Sangsad (national parliament) election, maintain their stance of not joining this election as a party and as an alliance. However, the BNP allies are in favour of not obstructing anyone who contests in the polls outside of the party or alliance.

Awami League, though, will not give party nomination for the upazila election. It has issued directives to the grassroots to hold the election independently. The main motive behind this strategy of the ruling party is to bring BNP and other anti-government parties to the upazila election and boost the voter turnout. However, two parties of the 14 Party alliance -- Workers Party and Jashod -- have decided to contest in the upazila election from their respective party platforms.

Outside of Awami League, parties of the 14 Party alliance do not have significant influence in the local government or grassroots elections. They lack leaders who have a strong personal image in the larger community and also suffer from organisational weakness.

In such circumstances, other than two or three parties of the 14 Party alliance, none of them are in a position to field candidates on a party basis. Even those who are contesting from party platforms, hardly have the organisational position to remain in the upazila contest. The leaders of the alliance parties acknowledge this.

The other parties allied to Awami League lost their importance in the national election too. In the seat sharing with Awami League for the 12th Jatiya Sangsad election held on 7 January, the allies only secured six seats and won three under the boat symbol.

Rashed Khan Menon, president of Workers Party, one of the major allies of AL, told Prothom Alo yesterday, Friday, that they did not take part in any local government election, including the upazila polls, as an alliance. Like last time, this time too they are fielding candidates as a party.

The Workers Party president said that they had begun the candidate nomination process for the upazila election, though they had not finalised as yet how many candidates they would field.

Another ally of the 14 Party alliance, Jashod, is also preparing for the upazila election from their party platform. Gonotantri Party may put forward independent candidates in two or three upazilas, the party sources said. Jashod president Hasanul Huq Inu told Prothom Alo that their leaders from various upazilas expressed their eagerness to contest in the election. They will finalise their candidates shortly.

Various parties and coalitions joined BNP's movement in boycotting the 7 January election. Most of these allies of BNP have no influence in election politics. But as in the case of the national election, they have also decided not to take part in the upazila parishad election as a group as that is the stand maintained so far by BNP.

Among BNP's allies, the 12 Party alliance, Jatiyatabadi Samamona Jote, do not have the organisational position to field candidates in the upazila election. These alliances to do have much importance in the upazila election.

The Ganatantra Mancha is the six-party alliance that is part of the simultaneous movement. This alliance too does not have the organisational strength to put forward candidates in the upazila election.

However, several leaders of these alliances have told Prothom Alo, that their discussions have been in favour of not obstructing anyone if they want to contest as individual candidates. They will take a decision in this regard after discussions with BNP.

One of the main leaders of Ganatantra Mancha and chief coordinator of Gonosanghati Andolan, Zonayed Saki, on Friday told Prothom Alo elections under the present Awami League government will not be free and fair. That is why after boycotting the 7 January election, they are still maintaining the stance of not contesting in any election under this government.

At the same time, the Ganatantra Mancha leader said, their party and alliance are discussing the upazila election. They will decide upon their stand after discussing the matter with the other parties in the simultaneous movement and BNP. Zonayed Saki also said that national elections and local government elections are not the same thing. There is difference between the two elections.