AL’s Khair prevails over own clan

Abul Khair Abdullah was little known in Barishal. He has neither any party portfolio in the city nor enough followers. He used to live in a rented house because he was not allowed at his family home in Barishal.

After the Awami League nominated him for mayor, Khair needed support from his mighty elder brother Abul Hasanat Abdullah and nephew Serniabat Sadiq Abdullah. But neither gave him genuine support. In fact, they acted like rivals.

Despite all these, Khair has won yesterday's election to Barishal City Corporation.

Abul Hasanat is a veteran politician who is the president of Barishal district AL, lawmaker from Barishal-1, and member of AL central working committee and AL parliamentary nomination board.  His son Serniabat Sadiq Abdullah, the general secretary of Barishal City AL, is the incumbent mayor of Barishal.

The father and son had for years controlled AL politics in Barishal without giving rival groups any chance. Their noncooperation with Khair was all too evident.

In a recent visit to his constituency, Hasanat hugged his younger brother, but the rift between them over the mayor nomination remained.

Since hardly any leaders from Barishal city AL would join Khair on his campaign trail because of their loyalty to Hasanat, Khair had to rely on AL central committee leaders.

Sadiq, away from Barishal since May 26, did not cast his vote and his followers were not seen in the vicinity of the polling centres yesterday.

But Khair, also known as Kokhon Serniabat, had the last laugh, defeating Mufti Syed Faizul Karim of Islami Andolon Bangladesh (IAB) by 53,980 votes, according to unofficial results.

However, some incidents of violence and irregularities took some shine off his win.

During polling, Faizul and his supporters were attacked when they were walking out of Sabera Khatun Girls' High School around 12:30pm in Choumatha area. Later in the day, police and BGB men used truncheons to disperse his followers at Beltala Bazar.

Police later said the activists were chased away for defying instructions.

"Ruling party men were asking people to vote for a specific symbol. They attacked me because I was telling the presiding officer about it," Faizul said.

Correspondents of this newspaper saw eight to 10 men wearing badges of the ruling party's electoral symbol attack Faizul and his supporters.

Briefing reporters at the Election Commission office in the capital, Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) Ahsan Habib Khan said the attack on Faizul was "sudden", and it was an isolated incident. He added that the attackers would be punished.

Afzalul Karim, chief election coordinator of the AL camp, said IAB supporters, some of whom were not even from the city, had tried to create instability during the election. "We do not know who attacked them."

In the evening, Mufti Syed Muhammad Rezaul Karim, ameer of the Islami Andolan Bangladesh (IAB), announced that his party had boycotted the city corporation elections in Barishal and Khulna. He added that the party would shun the coming elections in Sylhet and Rajshahi cities.

Large numbers of AL activists wearing badges of the party were seen at most of the 126 polling centres.

In at least seven places, supporters of councillor candidates chased each other, and AL men were seen entering the polling booths and asking constituents to vote for their candidate at three centres.

IAB leaders and Jatiya Party mayor nominee Iqbal Hossain Tapos alleged that AL activists drove their polling agents out of the polling centres and stopped some people who were going to cast their votes.

At several places, officials said the electronic voting machines (EVMs) were slow to read fingerprints. An EVM malfunctioned for about an hour in the morning at the Government Barishal College. BCC polls was conducted with EVMs only.

Renu Bala, 48, said she had to return home without casting her vote at Rupatali Zagua Primary School after waiting for two hours in the queue.

At Kashipur Girls High School and College and Hafizia Madrasa, a reporter of this newspaper saw a man, wearing the AL badge, standing beside a polling booth and pressing the voting button as soon as a voter was about to cast their vote.

When asked, the man said he was "helping locals cast votes".

Hannan Shaikh, presiding officer, said he was not aware of any such incident because no one made a complaint.