The seat-sharing agreement between the ruling Awami League and its allies, including the Jatiya Party, for the January 7 general election has remained unresolved.
The equation for the ruling party has become complex due to many heavyweights of the party contesting as independent candidates.
AL leaders said that they would discuss the seat-sharing issue with the JP, despite the latter announcing to join the polls unilaterally with its own symbol.
‘We will discuss the matter with the Jatiya Party and decide on it,’ Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader said on Tuesday at a briefing at the party president Sheikh Hasina’s political office in Dhanmondi in the capital.
Quader made the comment in response to a question on whether the Awami League would allow their candidates in seats where JP would field electoral alliance candidates like in 2018.
Obaidul, also the road transport and bridges minister, hoped that the seat-sharing issues with the Awami League-led alliance would be resolved within a day or two.
AL-led alliance coordinator Amir Hossain Amu said that the seat-sharing issue would be decided after meeting with the Jatiya Party today.
‘The decision is still uncertain. AL has strong candidates against AL,’ Amu said after a meeting with the alliance partners on Tuesday at his house.
‘It is too early to discuss who will withdraw or not and who will fight against whom. The announcement for giving seats would be made soon, though we have to wait until December 17 for the final settlement,’ said Amu, also a member of the Awami League advisory council.
He, however, said that the alliance would take part in the election as a coalition.
The Workers Party of Bangladesh president Rashed Khan Menon, Jatiya Samajtatrik Dal-Jasod president Hasanul Haq Inu, and Jasod secretary Shirin Akhter, among others, were present at the meeting.
Jasod president Inu was confident that the alliance would join the election in a coalition, especially after their meeting with alliance chief and prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday.
‘We will be able to resolve the seat-sharing issue,’ he told reporters emerging from the meeting of the AL-led alliance.
The alliance candidates would contest with the ‘Boat’ symbol, he said, referring to the electoral symbol of the ruling Awami League.
While speaking to reporters at the JP chairman’s office in Banani on Tuesday, JP secretary general Mujibul Haque Chunnu said that they would join the election unilaterally with their own symbol.
The JP secretary general made the announcement two days after the AL general secretary, Quader, commented that it was prime time for JP to stand on its own feet.
Chunnu said that his party had decided to join the upcoming election as the government and the Election Commission had assured them of a fair election.
He hoped that his party would get more votes than the ruling Awami League if voters could come to the polling centres and exercise their voting rights appropriately.
The number of anti-Awami League votes has doubled compared to the previous election, he observed.
Chunnu said that they wanted a fair environment for the election, though the experience during local elections in the past few years has not been pleasant.
Information and broadcasting minister Hasan Mahmud, also AL joint general secretary, congratulated the Jatiya Party on Tuesday for giving candidates nearly 300 seats and for participating in the election with all-out preparation.
‘We created a grand alliance with the Jatiya Party in the 2008 election, and they were also with us in the past election. There is a possibility like in the previous election with the party,’ he added.
Speaking to New Age, AL presidium member Abdur Rahman said that the party would join the election with all of its partners.
‘AL will join the election together with its alliance and others who have been with the party in the past,’ he said.
He said that issues about seat sharing might take time.
The delay in settling seat-sharing issues with alliance partners has left many AL candidates and independent candidates linked to the party worried about their fate, according to party insiders.
New Age
