Chattogram Mayoral Race: Shahadat got no vote in 7 centres

Defeated BNP mayoral candidate Shahadat Hossain didn't get any vote in at least seven polling centres and bagged single-digit votes at 80 centres in the Chattogram City Corporation Polls, said a top official at the Returning Office in the port city.

BNP leaders say this clearly shows that Wednesday's election was nothing but a farce.

They also alleged that the polls were manipulated through widespread irregularities and the capture of polling centres by the supporters of mayor-elect Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, who contested the election on the ruling Awami League ticket.

The BNP leaders also raised questions about the long delay in announcing results as polling was held through electronic voting machines.

It's also unbelievable that none of the BNP-backed councillor candidates won any of the 54 councillor posts, they pointed out.

Meanwhile, Election Commissioner Mahbub Talukder termed the polls a model for irregularities-riddled election.

"… It is unacceptable that we cannot hold an acceptable election in the 50th year of the country's independence," he said yesterday.

Talking to this newspaper, BNP standing committee member Amir Khashru Mahmud Chowdhury, the chief coordinator of the BNP's election campaign, said, "In the 2015 CCC polls, nine BNP-backed councillor candidates had won.

This time, the election was so manipulated and there were so many irregularities that none of the BNP-backed candidates could win the councillor post."

Rezaul secured a landslide victory bagging 369,248 votes in Wednesday's election but the polls were marked by violence, low voter turnout and the capture of scores of polling centres by ruling party men.

His nearest rival, Shahadat, got only 52,489 votes as per the results of 733 of the 735 polling centres. Voting at two centres was suspended following clashes between supporters of AL-backed councillor contenders and those of AL rebel candidates.            Voter turnout was 22.52 percent, according to Election Commission data.

Shahadat and five other candidates for the mayoral post lost their deposits for not getting one-eighth of the total votes cast in the election. Shahadat needed 54,567 votes to save his deposit.

According to Returning Office sources, Shahadat didn't get any vote at seven polling centres, including the BFRI Primary School and Nozimia Naimia Mahmudia Primary Madrasa. He got 568 votes at Uttar Halisohor Primary School -- the highest for the BNP candidate at a centre.

Asked about this, Khashru said Chattogram city is a strong base of the BNP and it is not believable that the BNP candidate would not get any vote or just two-three votes at a polling centre with 3,000-4,000 voters.

"It was the Chattogram City Corporation where our candidate had defeated Awami League's popular candidate late ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury in an election by more than one lakh votes.

"One or two votes for the BNP candidate reflect how farcical the election was.

"It was Awami League's election project at its worst."

He also claimed that thousands of outsiders from nearby areas captured polling centres, and the law enforcement agencies and the EC worked in favour of the ruling party candidate.

At a programme in the capital yesterday, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir alleged that the EC has become an affiliated body of the ruling party.

The BNP's opponent is no longer the AL, it's the police and the administration, he said.

Talking to The Daily Star, Shahadat said only six percent votes were cast till 2.00pm at many centres he had visited.

"Then how could the voter turnout be 22.52 percent? The election result was totally manipulated and the data on the voter turnout is absolutely false," he said.

About his getting no vote at several centres, Shahadat said, "Is it believable? We formed committees with at least 100 members each for helping voters at the polling centres in the city."

It is very much possible to announce the results within two to three hours of holding an election through EVMs but the authorities announced the result nine hours after the voting ended at 4:00pm.

Terming Wednesday's Polls a mockery, Akhter Kabir Chowdhury, president of Sachetan Nagorik Committee and also Transparency International Bangladesh's Chattogram city unit, said the holding of such one-sided election would increase people's mistrust, no-confidence and sense of unease about polls.

He also said it doesn't require a long time to announce results of polls held through EVMs, but the authorities took nine to 10 hours which indicates that they might have tried to increase the voter turnout.

Badiul Alam Majumder, secretary of Shushasoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan), a civil society platform, said the way the CCC polls were held, one could easily understand that it was nothing but a farcical election.

"The Election Commission has totally failed to hold the election in a free, fair and neutral manner."

The results of this election in no way reflect people's mandate, he noted.