Upazila polls underline AL’s moral, political bankruptcy
THE fourth phase of upazila council elections on Sunday, as had been anticipated, saw the ruling Awami League, with no mean help from election officials and members of law enforcement and security agencies, brazenly employ intimidation and repression, and secure victory for as many of its chosen candidates as possible.
According to print, electronic and online media reports, in most of the 91 upazilas that went into polls on the day, leaders and activists of the ruling party and its associate organisations ran amok, capturing polling stations and stuffing ballot boxes in wanton glee.
In several polling stations in some upazilas votes were cast hours before the scheduled start of polling and even since midnight past the previous day.
Then, of course, there were widespread violence, mostly imposed upon supporters of either rebel AL candidates or contestants loyal to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies by leaders and activists of the ruling party and its associate organisations; at least four, including a local AL leader, were killed. Last but not least, candidates backed by and loyal to the BNP and its allies boycotted the elections halfway through the polling in at least 11 upazilas. In fact, it is quite surprising that the BNP-backed candidates managed to win 20-odd posts of chairman.
What is, however, not surprising is the apparent AL decision to disdainfully disregard the electoral rules and deny the electorate their democratic rights to choose their own representatives. The farcical general elections on January 5 seem to have underlined the ruling party’s inclination to resorting to all possible means—legal, illegal and extra-legal—to win elections. In the process, it seems to have re-incarnated a demon of the past — rampant violence and irregularities during elections and thus wilful negation of people’s right to exercise their franchise without fear or favour — with renewed vengeance. It is worth noting that electoral violence and fraud was a preferred tool for the military and quasi-military regimes of the past and, importantly still, was believed to have been consigned permanently to history.
It is ironic that the ruling party, which tirelessly professes its commitment to protection and consolidation of democracy, should connive so shamelessly to decimate the democratic political process. It is equally ironic that the ruling party, which often castigate the military regimes of the past for setting back democratisation of the state and society, should so shamelessly steal a page from their manual of election frauds. In any case, the manoeuvring and manipulation first in the general elections, and now the upazila elections, has apparently stripped the ruling party of the last vestige of political legitimacy on the one hand and proved its political and moral bankruptcy on the other. Most importantly, the ruling political class has repeatedly proved its inherent incapability of delivering free and fair polls — national and local, with the opposition participating or boycotting — and thus given legitimacy to the call for restoration of the constitutional provision for election-time party-neutral government.
In such circumstances, it is imperative that each and every rights-conscious and democratically-oriented individual should rise up in unison and decry the ruling party’s disdainful disregard for democratic norms and practices. After all, it is their democratic and constitutionally guaranteed right that is at stake.
Upazila polls underline AL’s moral, political bankruptcy
কোনো লুকোচুরি নেই। নেই কোন ভয়ভীতি। সকাল ৮টায় ভোট গ্রহণ শুরুর হবার পরমুহুর্তে দেখা গেল অনেক কেন্দ্র ভোট বাক্স ভরে গেছে। অনেক ভোটার ঘুম ভেঙ্গে চোখমুখ ধুয়ে ভোট কেন্দ্রে এসে দেখেন ভোট দেয়া হয়ে গেছে। জাল ভোটের ভয়ে যারা প্রত্যুষেই কেন্দ্রে হাজির, তাদের চোখ চড়াকগাছ। বুথে প্রবেশ করা মাত্রই বলা হল- দাদু- কষ্ট করে এলেন কেন? আপনার কাজটি আমরাই করে দিয়েছি। তাহলে ভোট হলো কখন? ভোট হয়েছে মধ্য রাতে। আওয়ামী লীগ সমর্থিত প্রার্থী গোলাম মর্তুজার পক্ষে প্রশাসন, দলীয় কর্মী সবাই মিলে মিশেই মধ্য রাতে ভোট প্রদানের কাজ শেষ করেছে। সব চেয়ে বিস্ময়কর হলো, প্রিজাইডিং অফিসাররাও এ কাজে পুর্ন সমর্থন দিয়েছেন। আগৈলঝাড়া উপজেলা সাবেক চিফ হুইপ আবুল হাসানাত এমপির বাড়ি। ফলে এখানে প্রশাসন কখনই টু-শব্দটি করে না। এখানে আইনই হলো হাসানাত। আর এ কারনেই মধ্যরাতে এবার ভোট উৎসব হয়েছে আগৈলঝাড়ার অধিকাংশ ভোট কেন্দ্রে।
