Elected councillors are mostly clean

The people of Narayanganj city have mostly chosen candidates with clean image in the just-concluded elections as majority of the councillors-elect do not have criminal records.

Of the 27 councillors-elect of general wards, 17 are not currently accused in criminal cases, according to their affidavits submitted to the returning officer (RO) with nomination papers.

The victory of such candidates has given the mayor-elect Selina Hayat Ivy relatively a clean team to run the city corporation.

“It is a good sign that people have mostly rejected the candidates with criminal records. More candidates with clean image are elected, more the possibility of maintaining good governance by local government bodies increases,” eminent local government expert Dr Tofail Ahmed told The Daily Star.

Ivy, who won a second term defeating BNP candidate Shakhawat Hossain by a wide margin, pledged to work for development of Narayanganj by taking all irrespective of political parties and ideologies on board.

She became the first mayor of Narayanganj through the maiden Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) elections in 2011. That time, around one-third of councillors in her team had no criminal records.    

In Thursday's election, 156 aspirants were vying for 27 councillor posts. Of them, 36 are accused in different criminal cases, including that for murder.

However, some councillors-elect have criminal records and people are concerned that they might misuse power to gain personal benefit.

For example, BNP activist Iqbal Hossain, who was accused in the sensational seven-murder case, has been elected councillor of general ward-2 by defeating Selina Islam Beauty, wife of slain ward councillor Nazrul Islam, a victim of the seven-murder in April, 2014.

Although Iqbal's name was dropped from the charge sheet in the seven-murder case, he is now accused in another criminal case.

Shajalal Badal, a local leader of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) and nephew of Nur Hossain, the prime accused in the seven-murder case, has been elected councillor of ward-3. He is accused in nine criminal cases.

“These councillors-elect may try to continue their criminal activities by influencing the administration,” said Abdul Alim, director of Election Working Group (EWG), a platform of 29 civil society organisations that works for promoting fair election and good governance.

In the elections, grassroots leaders and activists of the ruling AL bagged 13 general wards, BNP 12 wards and Jatiya Party (JP) and Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (BSD) got one each.

AL men won ward-1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 23. BNP men got ward-2, 5, 9, 11, 12, 13, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26 and 26.

JP won ward-24 while left political party BSD ward-15, reports a correspondent from Narayanganj.

Of the winner of nine women reserved seats, four councillors-elect belong to AL and two to BNP. The rest do not have any political affiliation.