Voting in Khulna, Barishal city corporations begins
Voting in City Corporation elections of Barishal and Khulna cities has begun at 8:00 am on Monday and will continue without any break until 4:00 pm. Nearly 800,000 voters residing in the two city corporation areas will cast their votes to elect representatives for various local government positions, including mayors and ward councillors.
Earlier, the campaigning in both the city corporations ended fairly peacefully. The government has announced the day as a general holiday in the two city corporation areas.
In the Khulna City Corporation, five candidates have been contesting for the mayoral post while 136 candidates are vying for 31 general councillor posts and 39 candidates competing for 10 reserved councillor posts.
The mayoral candidates are – ruling Awami League nominated immediate past KCC mayor Talukder Abdul Khaleque, Islami Andolan Bangladesh’s Maulana Abdul Awal, Jatiya Party’s Shafiqul Islam Madhu, Zaker Party’s SM Sabbir Hossain and independent candidate Shafiqur Rahman (Mushfique).
The number of voters in the Khulna City Corporation is 535,529. Among them, 266,696 are female and 268,833 are male. Voting is being held at 1,732 booths of 289 polling centres.
Except for the ruling party candidate, all the mayoral candidates anticipate a low voter turnout. AL candidate Talukder Abdul Khaleque thought around 60-65 per cent votes will be cast in the election.
Jatiya Party’s Shafiqul Islam Madhu is being tipped as main competitor of the ruling party’s candidate. He thought the turnout would be at best 45 per cent. Other candidates also speculated that vote casting would not be more than 40-50 per cent. They cited their past encounters from the previous two elections as the reasons behind their speculations.
Rather than focusing solely on victory in election, Awami League's main concern lies in effectively mobilising voters and ensuring their active participation at polling centres. The party has also issued all kinds of directives to the local leaders to encourage the voters to go to vote peacefully. To this end, councillor candidature was made open so that the candidates can inspire the voters.
In Barishal City Corporation, the number of voters is 274,995. Of them, 138,071 are female and 136,924 are male voters. They will cast votes at 126 polling centres.
Seven mayoral candidates have been contesting in the BCC polls. They are – Awami League nominated Abul Khair Abdullah, independent candidate Md Kamrul Ahsan, Mufti Syed Mohammad Fayzul Karim, Md Ali Hossain Hawlader, Mizanur Rahman Bacchu, Md Iqbal Hossain and Md Asaduzzaman.
A total of 116 councillor candidates have been competing in 30 wards of Barishal City Corporation and 42 female councillors vying for 10 reserved seats.
De facto opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has boycotted the elections to all five city corporations from its stand of not taking part in any elections under the incumbent government. The central leaders of the BNP asked its party men not to contest even in councillor posts as party’s electoral symbols are not used for the councillor election.
Violating the party direcitves 15 BNP men have been competing in the general councillor posts and three in the reserved female councillor posts. Consequently, the party has expelled them permanently. BNP has also expelled mayoral candidate Kamrul Ahsan, a former leader of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and son of Ahsan Habib, a former mayor.
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, however, did not take any organisational action against four of its leaders who have been competing in the councillor posts.