No voting to Bhola, Feni zila parishads
All candidates in the dists elected unopposed; large number of chairman, member aspirants in other dists face no contestants
Twenty-two district council chairman candidates have been declared elected unopposed by the Election Commission.
A total of 61 districts were slated to go to district council polls on December 28. But there would be no election in Bhola and Feni on that day as the chairmen and all the 40 member hopefuls of the two district councils have already been elected unopposed.
Besides, at least 165 member hopefuls of the total 700 posts in 35 district councils are going to be elected uncontested, according to data compiled by The Daily Star. This means many voters, elected public representatives of different local government bodies, would be denied their rights to exercise their franchise.
The EC declared the chairman candidates elected yesterday after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations expired on Sunday.
In Jhalakathi, voters of only two wards will cast votes as the chairman and 18 member aspirants have been elected uncontested.
The trend of uncontested elections is prominent in Sirajganj, Pabna, Natore, Thakurgaon, Munshiganj, Narayanganj, Faridpur, Chittagong, Barisal and Madaripur.
Out of 20 member posts in each district councils, 10 are going to be won unopposed in Sirajganj, nine each in Natore and in Madaripur, eight each in Barisal and Narayanganj, seven each in Pabna, Munshiganj and Faridpur and six each in Chittagong and Thakurgaon.
Talking to The Daily Star, former election commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain said, “Nowadays the issue of being elected unopposed has developed into a culture in our country. The culture is apparent in all levels of elections -- from the national to the grassroots. This is not a healthy practice in democracy.”
He suggested that the EC should investigate into the uncontested polls where the trend is prominent. The EC should probe whether candidates were forced to withdraw their nominations in any particular area, he added.
EC's Additional Secretary Moklesur Rahman said, “If anybody files complaints with the commission about the polls, we will definitely investigate into those.”
According to the District Council (Amendment) Act 2016, voters will elect a chairman and 20 members, including five women in reserved seats, in each district.
There are 63,143 voters in 61 districts. The hill districts of Bandarban, Rangamati and Khagrachhari are not going to polls.
Chairmen and members of union parishads; chairmen and vice-chairmen of upazila parishads; mayors and councillors of municipalities and city corporations of the district concerned will vote in the zila parishad polls.
The BNP and Jatiya Party did not support party men for contesting the December 28 elections.
However, candidates backed by the ruling Awami League are fighting polls against around 50 party men in 30 districts, report our correspondents.
In December 2011, the government had appointed administrators to 61 zila parishads, mostly top leaders of the AL's district units.
ELECTED CHAIRMEN
The 22 district council chairmen elected unopposed are Anowar Hossain in Narayanganj, M Aktharuzzaman in Gazipur, Sadeq Koraishi in Thakurgaon, Arifur Rahman Rocket in Joypurhat, Sajedur Rahman Khan in Natore, Abdul Latif Biswas in Sirajganj, Shah Hadiuzzaman in Jessore, Sheikh Kamruzzaman Tuku in Bagerhat, Sardar Shah Alam in Jhalakathi, Abdul Momin Tulu in Bhola, Prashanta Kumar Roy in Netrakona, M Mohiuddin in Munshiganj, Azizul Imam Chowdhury in Dinajpur, AKM Fazle Rabbi in Naogaon, Robiul Islam in Kushtia, Aziz Ahmed Chowdhury in Feni, M Zillur Rahman in Kishoreganj, M Mahbubur Rahman in Dhaka, Mohammad Mushfiq Hossain Chowdhury in Habiganj, M Abdus Salam in Chittagong, Fazlur Rahman Khan Faruk in Tangail and Lokman Mridha in Faridpur.
Our district correspondents contributed to this report.