AL ‘election’ posters go up violating code
The election to Chattogram City Corporation is scheduled to be held on March 29 with campaigning starting on March 9.
Ahead of the polls, the Election Commission made two things clear -- posters cannot be laminated or in colour and campaigning cannot begin before the specified date.
In spite of this, colour posters in favour of Awami League mayor candidate Rezaul Karim Chowdhury was seen plastered on the walls of the port city since early Thursday.
This correspondent yesterday visited Lalkhan Bazar, Kazir Dewri and Askar Dighir Par and saw posters with pictures of Rezaul visible across the areas.
This makes for the violation of two separate electoral codes of conduct and should warrant immediate steps by the EC. However, the situation is a bit more complex as the posters are not actually made by Rezaul's campaign team.
They are made by an organisation called "Swadhinota Nari Shakti Chattogram-11", as mentioned on the bottom of the poster.
Contacted, Rezaul was at a loss to explain the situation. He said he did not even "hear their name before".
"Many people have asked me about the posters, but I don't have any idea of what's going on," he said. "It may have been done by a vested quarter to put me in a tight spot," Rezaul suspected.
The poster contains no mention of the elections, but the slogans imprinted on it alludes to the polls.
"Support the skilled; give the opportunity to work for you; I seek blessings from city dwellers," it read.
Contacted, Md Hasanuzzaman, returning officer of CCC polls, said he also noticed the posters.
"Although those do not seek votes nor contain any candidate's name, pasting posters with a candidate's photo before the Election Commission-approved date definitely goes against the spirit of the electoral code of conduct," he told The Daily Star.
"We have launched an investigation to know more about the organisation and identify who put the posters up," he said. "Once detected, perpetrators could be in for a hefty fine," Hasanuzzaman warned.
The organisation was formed in 2018 by MA Latif, the incumbent AL lawmaker from Chattogram-11.
Contacted, Latif said he was its founding president. "I formed the organisation to empower neglected women," Latif said, adding he was not aware of the posters before they were put up across the city.
Asked about his take on the situation, he said, "The posters do not mention any candidate's name nor any electoral symbol; it doesn't even seek votes for any candidate."
According to Latif, the posters only contain "a general appeal asking people to support the qualified person."
This, he claimed, exonerates the organisation from any accusation of code of conduct violation.
However, the posters do come with a photo of Rezaul right in the middle, which might influence a viewer to connect the dots and see it as a means to seek votes for the AL candidate.
Asked about this, Latif backtracked and said, "Members of the organisation are simple-minded people and do not understand such nuances well."
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