BNP excels as AL falls in 5yrs

In the polls to 112 upazilas on Thursday, the Awami League-backed candidates lost half the chairman posts they had secured five years ago and the BNP blessed ones nearly doubled their presence in upazila parishads.
The AL blessed candidates managed to secure only 107 out of 336 chairman and vice-chairman posts, including those reserved for women. BNP-backed ones got 141 posts.
In the January 2009 polls to these upazilas, candidates backed by the ruling AL had won 217 posts and BNP supported ones managed only 77 posts.
In terms of sweeping victory in an upazila -- winning the chairman and two vice-chairman posts -- the AL-blessed candidates managed to do it in 16 upazilas. In 2009, they had secured 41 upazilas. The BNP contenders had got such victories in four upazilas in 2009 but now they have absolute control over 11 upazila parishads.
In the Thursday's polls, rebel candidates of AL and BNP could not do well. They won only three chairman posts although there were more than a hundred rebels in the race. Of the three winners, two are BNP leaders and one belongs to AL.
In the run up to this election, the AL and BNP had made vigorous attempts to persuade the rebels to quit the race and leave one party-blessed candidate for each post. The parties had even expelled some rebels.
But results show that the battle of ballots was largely between the AL- and BNP-backed candidates. The rebels could not do as much harm as was feared but in a handful of upazilas, the rebels were responsible for the wins and defeats of candidates backed by both parties as they chipped away votes of the party-backed candidates.
However, Commerce Minister and senior AL leader Tofail Ahmed yesterday blamed rebels for the defeat of some candidates backed by the AL. He hoped his party rebels would learn from this and back off from the last two phases of upazila polls.   
He said it was too early to say that AL was lagging behind as elections to many upazila were yet to be held. "Moreover, a political party's popularity cannot be determined through local government elections," he said.
BNP acting general secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told The Daily Star yesterday that the outcomes of the two phases had proved that people were annoyed with the current government.
He said, "The BNP-backed candidates would have done even better had the Awami League men not resorted to rigging the polls through violent means and by using the administration. We hope the government will learn from the results of the polls and resign immediately paving the way for fresh general elections under a non-partisan government."   
Jamaat-backed vice-chairman candidates surprised many in Thursday's polls. They secured 32 vice-chairman posts and 11 vice-chairman posts reserved for women.
Jatiya Party's performance on the other hand was rather disappointing. Only one chairman candidate and four vice-chairman candidates backed by Jatiya Party, the main opposition in parliament, could secure victories.
The party backed candidates even could not win in upazilas like Rangpur, Kurigram, Nilphamari and Lalmonirhat, which are considered Jatiya Party strongholds.
According to local JP leaders, party chief HM Ershad's shifting stances over taking part in the January 5 parliamentary election had damaged their credibility. Dejected, many local JP leaders and supporters had even joined AL and BNP, which was also a reason for its poor results, they said.
Organisational weaknesses had also contributed to the party-backed candidates' defeat, they said, adding that in some cases, JP men had even worked for the candidates blessed by the BNP in exchange for money and other benefits.
Ghulam Moshi, political secretary to the leader of opposition in parliament, blamed organisational weakness and dilemma over joining the January 5 polls for the poor results in the upazila elections.
"It is alarming for the party. We must reorganise," he told The Daily Star.  
Thursday's elections saw an unofficial turnout of 62.19 percent, a little less than the turnout in the first phase. The Election Commission has not yet released the official turnout for the second phase.