AL allies bargain over seat sharing and independent candidates

Ruling Awami League is yet to come to an understanding with the alliance and partners regarding the election. Their ally Jatiya Party (JaPa) and partners of the 14 party alliance first want the Awami League candidates in their seats to be withdrawn. They also want assurance that no independent candidate of Awami League contest in the seats left to them.

Over the past three to four days, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and other top leaders of Awami League have been holding separate meetings with Leaders of JaPa and the 14 party alliance. Sources at the meetings revealed these developments.

Awami League party sources say that they are willing to make concessions in the seats of the top leaders of the partner and alliance parties. But they do not want to take the responsibility of fielding independent candidates. This may put a dampener on voter turnout. Also, criticism may arise if they use administrative pressure to field independent candidates.

JaPa has been Awami League major ally over the past three elections. They entered into a compromise over the elections and became the opposition in parliament. Now with the next elections looming large, the two parties are engaged in bargaining. On Tuesday and Wednesday, JaPa leaders held several meetings with told Awami League leaders. While speculations abound in the political arena, not final understanding has been reached regarding the seats.

Sources say, the seat sharing issue is likely to be finalised after a few more rounds of talks. However, JaPa’s headache at the moment is to get the ‘boat’ candidate to be withdrawn from seats where compromise has been reached.

The party leaders feel that it will be hard to win in constituencies where a candidate is contesting with the ‘boat’ symbol. They also see the independent candidates of Awami League as a threat. JaPa’s main objective is to remove these two risks from the field.

Reliable sources in JaPa say that the party leaders raised these two issues in their last two meetings with Awami League. They discussed certain strategic issues regarding the forthcoming election. The JaPa leaders said, there are questions at home and among international quarters concerning the 7 January election if BNP and other major parties do not participate. The prime minister is going ahead with the election in this situation. If the attitude of the foreign quarters is to be changed a free and fair election is a must. The foreign quarters must also be shown a vibrant representative opposition in parliament.

Sources at a policy-making level in JaPa says that the party leaders referred to these factors and submitted a list of 75 names. After all, the government efforts to split BNP did not work. They failed to lure the BNP leaders into the folds of the new ‘Kings Parties’ Trinomool BNP and Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Andolan (BNM). JaPa is their only hope. If Awami League acquiesces to these demands, they will bag more votes. If not, they will have to remain content with 15 to 20 seats.

In the meantime, at a press briefing organised on Thursday at the JaPa Banani office, JaPa secretary general Mujibul Huq Chunnu said, they are joining the polls in order to keep the democratic process running. JaPa will have a competitive election with Awami League. He said that there had been no compromise over seats.

Over the past one week, partners of the 14 party alliance have held talks with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and coordinator of the alliance, Amir Hossain Amu. Sources, however, say that till now no resolution has been reached regarding the seats. Also, Awami League displays no interest in discussing the issue of fielding independent candidates in the selected seats.

Sources within Awami League have said that their understanding conveyed is that concessions will be made in the seats of certain the major leaders of the 14 alliance. These include the seats of Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon and general secretary Fazle Hossain Badsha, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal president Hasanul Huq Inu, Tarikat Federation president Najibul Bashar Maizbhandari and Jatiya Party (JP)’s Anwar Hossain Manju.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, Tarikat Federation’s Najibul Bashar Maizbhandari said negotiations in seat sharing are in the final stages. There are just a few loose threads left and those too will be tied soon.

JaSad’s general secretary Shireen Akhter and Rezaul Karim Tansen, and Workers Party’s Mustafa Lutfullah are presently members of parliament. There is no guarantee that they will be so again.

Amidst the talks on seat sharing and removing the independent candidates, the alliance coordinator Amir Hossain Amu yesterday, Thursday, went to his own constituency Jhalokathi. He will return on 10 December.

Speaking to Prothom Alo over mobile phone last night, Amir Hossain Amu said that a final understanding will be reached after 10 December with the allies over the issue of seat sharing.