The ruling Awami League has taken several new tactics including engaging local government representatives across Bangladesh to bring voters to polling centres amid the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and allies boycotting the January 7 general election.
The AL candidates and local government representatives are allegedly intimidating people to compel them to come to the election centres, while in some areas they are threatening to withdraw social safety net services like family cards provided to get essentials at subsidised prices.
‘Our Dhaka north city mayor Atiqul Islam directed ward councillors to engage at least 300 people for each polling centre who will go from home to home on the morning of January 7 to fetch voters to their assigned polling centre,’ Dhaka north city corporation Ward-13 councillor Md Ismail Mollah told New Age on Friday.
There are 54 wards under the DNCC.
The Awami League is giving its all-out efforts to gather voters on the polling day, while it has allowed party independent candidates as dummy ones following the prime minister and party president Sheikh Hasina’s directive to avoid another unopposed election like that of 2014 when 153 candidates won the election as the sole candidate for their respective seats with the BNP and other opposition parties boycotting the polls.
‘Our main target is to bring voters to the centres to cast vote. We are regularly holding meetings in several clubs and other places. We are presenting Sheikh Hasina government’s development activities and why they should cast votes,’ said DNCC ward No-38 councillor Sheikh Selim.
He said that if voters do not cast vote, the election will not have international acceptance.
Although Dhaka South City mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh did not give any such directives, DSCC’s 75 ward councillors, led by former cabinet secretary Kabir Bin Anwar, are also working hard to mobilise voters.
DSCC Ward-16 councillor Nazrul Islam Babul, also AL Kalabagan Thana unit general secretary, said that they took it as a challenge to bring voters in the polling centres as the BNP launched non-cooperation movement.
‘People supporting the BNP will not come to cast vote. On the other hand, they are encouraging the common people to boycott the polls. Our target is to bring general voters, those do not support any political party,’ he said, adding led by Kabir Bin Anwar they are training 30 people for each polling centre to mobilise the voters.
He said that there were 19 polling centres under the ward.
‘Our target is to ensure voters’ participation so that the election would be accepted at home and abroad,’ he added.
AL joint general secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim told New Age that encouraging citizens to cast vote in the election is an old tradition in Bangladesh.
‘Like the previous elections, candidates will send representatives to bring voters in the morning and afternoon. In many cases, they kept rickshaws, rickshaw-vans and boats to create an easy access to cast vote,’ he added.
The Thakurgaon electoral inquiry committee on Thursday asked ruling Awami League lawmaker and official party candidate for Thakurgaon-1 Ramesh Chandra Sen about their response on allegation of threatening cancellation of social safety net cards if the holders of the cards do not appear in the polling centre and cast votes on January 7, New Age correspondent in Thakurgaon reported.
‘Being beneficiaries of various government programmes, if you don’t come to cast your votes, your names will be removed from the lists,’ the AL lawmaker allegedly said during the campaign on Wednesday.
DNCC Ward-37 councillor Md Jahangir Alam on Thursday announced that facility of TCB family cards would be withheld if they do not cast votes in the coming election, said witnesses.
The councillor was heard making the comment in front of his house at East Merul DIT Project Gulshan at Merul Badda.
Asked for comment about the matter, Md Jahangir Alam brushed aside the question, saying ‘Every person has the right to obtain TCB and other facilities under the leadership of prime minister Sheikh Hasina.’
AL joint secretary Bahauddin Nasim said that if anyone makes such mistake of intimidating voters, they will be liable for it, but not the party.
‘Our party has not given any directives to threaten the voters. I urge them to correct their mistakes and follow the electoral code of conduct,’ he added.
The opposition parties including the main opposition BNP have, meanwhile, called for non-cooperation, urging people to boycott the January 7 polls.
New Age
