AL sees it as wakeup call

Ruling Awami League plans to restore chain of command in the party, and correct its leaders' and activists' often discourteous behaviour with the public, to avert further slide in its popularity.
The plan came after BNP-backed candidates bagged more mayoral posts than the candidates backed by AL in the just concluded municipal polls.
AL policymakers primarily identified a breakdown of the chain of command, lack of coordination, internal feud, and inappropriate selection of candidates for backing, as major reasons for the party's lesser performance in the polls.
"Unacceptable activities" of its associated bodies like Bangladesh Chhatra League and front organisations like Awami Jubo League also had a negative impact on voters, a number of AL senior leaders observed.
"It's a wake up call for both the government and the party," AL Presidium Member Obaidul Quader told The Daily Star yesterday. "After evaluating the errors, we must learn from the municipality elections."
He said the party will have to analyse whether price hike of essentials, and deterioration of law and order played any role in the outcome of the polls.
The Daily Star yesterday talked to two senior ministers, who are also policymakers of AL, to know their views on the poll results. But they declined to make any comment on record.
One of them however said, on condition of anonymity, that they will soon sit with AL President also Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to discuss the party's next course of action to improve the situation.
The party chief will also sit with the organisation's rank and file soon to discuss elaborately organisational weak points for which the party could not secure expected results in the polls. Some leaders will also be deputised to deal with the loopholes to avert such losses in the upcoming union parishad elections to be held in March or April, party sources said.
A policymaker said Hasina, also the leader of AL parliamentary party, will discuss the issue with her deputies at the parliamentary party's meeting during the upcoming parliament session.
AL -- which assumed office on January 6, 2009 after sweeping the December, 2008 parliamentary election -- did not expect to see BNP-backed candidates winning more mayoral posts than the candidates supported by itself, just two years into the government's tenure.
In a primary analysis, AL found that in most of the municipalities where candidates of its choice were defeated -- its ministers, lawmakers, and district and upazila unit leaders at those places violated party command and supported rebel candidates of their personal choice.
Many central leaders expressed astonishment at the defeats of AL supported candidates in many municipalities under the constituencies of stalwart AL ministers. In those cases, the party noticed internal conflict as the cause of the losses, the sources said.
The observations came from the last several days' meetings of AL senior leaders, who also voiced concerns about those local level leaders who did not carry out commands of the central leadership.
Some of the AL leaders observed that unruly activities of associated and front organisations like Chhatra League and Jubo League also had a negative impact on voters who would otherwise vote for AL backed candidates. They said the problem must be corrected for securing a better result in the upcoming union parishad polls.
AL Organising Secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim told The Daily Star that the poll results did not meet their expectations. As a reason for such unexpected results he pointed out that many AL ministers and lawmakers backed rebel candidates instead of party supported ones for their own interests.
He said a cabinet minister is still backing a rebel candidate in Madaripur municipality where the election will be held on January 27 following a High Court order. Nasim said the minister had been asked to stop backing the rebel, but he did not pay any heed.
Nasim said stern organisational actions will be taken against those party members who violated party commands, no matter whether they are ministers or lawmakers. There are many ways of taking organisational actions other than expulsion and issuance of show cause notices, he added.