Cumilla city polls: Several questions remain unanswered

Voting in Cumilla City Corporation election ended smoothly. Earlier contenders carried out their election campaign without any hindrance. Neither were their any objections regarding the measures taken by the Election Commission (EC) to hold a congenial election. EC deployed a large number of law enforcers along with installing CCTV cameras in each polling centre to maintain fair and peaceful voting. The EC even remained cautious in using the Electric Voting Machine (EVM) that was widely criticised and doubted by the politicians. Elderly voters faced problems with the EVM though.

It is said that all’s well that ends well. But the EC did not seem to end the election well in this regard. The vote counting in the centres began immediately after the polling ended at 4:00 pm on Wednesday. Although there were five candidates for the post of mayor, the main competition was between Awami League candidate Arfanul Haque and independent candidate Monirul Haque. Both of them literally were in a tough competition. In 101 out of 105 polling centres, Monirul Haque was leading with about 600 votes. A chaos broke out in the control room between the supporters of the two candidates from where the returning officer was announcing the result.

Following this when the EC announced to suspend the results of the rest of the centres, the commotion turned into sheer chaos. Independent candidate Monirul Haque announced he would not leave the place without results. Shortly afterwards, the returning officer announced the final results and said that the Awami League candidate had been elected with 50,310 votes. His nearest Monirul Haque got 49,967 votes. The difference between the votes of the two candidates is only 343.

Any one of the candidates could win as it was a tough competition. If there had not been a commotion at the end of the counting of votes or if the counting had not been postponed, the debate on the final result would not have been raised. Therefore question must arise whether it is the incompetence of the concerned persons of the EC, their lack of professionalism or there remains any other agenda. Independent candidate Monirul Haque has rejected the results, saying his defeat was planned and would seek redress in the election court.

Earlier, local MP AQM Bahauddin not only disobeyed the order of the Election Commission (EC) to leave the area, he also challenged the credibility of the letter and questioned the etiquette of the language. The matter of whether the commission is capable of establishing its authority was discussed more than whether or not the lawmaker’s challenge on voting day has had any effect on the minds of voters.

The absolute authority of the Election Commission over the election was not reflected in the Cumilla city polls, despite the fair voting. Many questions remained unanswered.