AL’s Atiqul wins mayoral by-polls largely ignored

Ruling Awami League candidate Atiqul Islam was elected Dhaka north city mayor for about one-year term in the by-elections largely ignored by city dwellers on Thursday.
According to the unofficial results the 1,295 polling stations, announced by returning officer Abul Kashem at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre, Atiqul bagged 8,39302 votes while his nearest contestant singer Shafin Ahmed of the Jatiya Party polled 52,429 votes.
Of the rest three mayoral candidates, National Peoples Party’s Anisur Rahman got 8,695 votes, Progressive Democratic Party’s Shahin Khan got 8,560 votes and independent candidate Abdur Rahim bagged 14,040 votes.
The voter turnout was 31.05 per cent in the election, announced the returning officer.
The Election Commission claimed that the voter turnout was about 50 per cent in the mayoral by-election in the Dhaka North City Corporation and elections for the positions of councillors in 18 newly added wards in each of the Dhaka north and south city corporations.
A large number of voters, however, refrained from casting vote as they found no meaning in casting their vote in the ‘practically’ unilateral polls that continued from 8:00am to 4:00pm.
Addressing a press conference at the Election Commission media centre on completion of the non-stop eight-hour polling, commission secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed said that they thought that voter turnout was about 50 per cent in both the cities.
According to the commission, the number of voters was about 30.35 lakh in the north city and about 5.90 lakh in the south city.
Election officials were seen spending most of the time standing outside polling rooms at Central University College, Begum Nurjahan Memorial Girls High School and Green Woods School polling stations of Mohammadpur because of low voter turnout between 11:00am and 12:00pm.
They told New Age that voter had hardly any interest in the one-sided election boycotted by all the opposition parties. 
Many voters in Dhaka north city said that they did not take interest in the local body polls after the December 30 national election marred by fraud and flaws.
No agent of other candidates was seen in the polling stations as AL leaders and activists were seen guarding the polling stations.
AL activists illegally riding motorbikes were dominating in roads passing the polling stations although motorbike riding without Election Commission’s striker was prohibited.
Witnesses said that polling officers passed idle time at polling stations as voters could not go to the centres while voters also avoid casting vote due to rain.
At Juvenile Care School at Mirpur Lalkuti, 35 of the 1,808 votes were cast until 11:00am, said presiding officer Mohsin Mia. 
At Little Flower International School at Kazipara, 16 votes were cast until 9:40am, said presiding officer Khan Humayun Kabir.
At Kalyanpur Girls School, no voter came up until 10:30am. According to official charts, the polling station had 2,158 voters.
At TNT Adarsha High School at Mohakhali, only one vote was cast in two hours and a half in a booth, said assistant presiding officer Afzal Rahman.
At some polling stations, polling agents of other candidates except Atiqul were not seen.
Chief election commissioner KM Nurul Huda said that the commission was not responsible for the low voter turnout in the elections to the two city corporations.
‘It’s the responsibility of candidates and political parties to bring voters to polling centres,’ he said while talking to reporters after casting his vote at IES School and College at Uttara.
Nurul Huda said that the commission had the responsibility to create an election environment, not to bring the voters to polling stations.
Replying to a question, he said, ‘Although the voter turnout remains low in the morning, it will increase at the end of the day.’
About reasons behind the low turnout, Nurul Huda said that voters were not interested in casting vote as some major political parties were not participating in the polls.
Election commissioner Mahbub Talukdar said that he witnessed low voter turnout.
In a statement in the light of his observations while casting his vote at the Ispahani Girls High School and College polling centre at Moghbazar, he said that he went to cast his vote at the centre at about 9:30am and visited five centres there.
‘Only 385 of the 9,413 voters exercised their franchise at 15 booths of the centres from 8:00am to 10:00am,’ he said.
Polling agents of only the AL mayoral candidate were seen at the polling rooms, he said.
Mahbub also termed the election an uncompetitive one since those who would be elected in the polls would perform their duty for only one year.
‘The election is also non-participatory one since the major opposition political parties are not taking part in it,’ he said adding that the election had to be an impartial and constitutional one.
Dhaka north city mayoral position was vacant due to death of Annisul Haq in 2017.
AL-backed Annisul was elected as mayor bagging 4,60,117 votes while his BNP-backed contender Tabith Awal got 3,25,080 votes.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net