Photo : Collected
In the run-up to the first phase of the upazila elections, the candidates of the ruling Awami League are running door-to-door campaigns. Awami League leaders who are not contesting are also encouraging voters to go to polling stations to cast ballots.
Meanwhile, the BNP, which announced to boycott the elections, are running vigorous anti-voting campaigns. The party says most of its leaders and activists as well as common people have a negative attitude about going to polling stations.
This has made Awami League leaders worried about voter turnout. The party’s Organising Secretary BM Mozammel Haque told The Daily Messenger that the BNP is spreading confusions to prevent people from going to polling stations so that election problems arise. However, most of the conscious people will go to polling stations and vote to choose the right leadership, he said.
Member of the BNP Standing Committee Abdul Moyeen Khan told The Daily Messenger that 1st phase UZ voting on May 8 AL candidates running door-to-door campaigns people never voted in the farcical elections of the Awami League and they would not either this time.
“People did not vote in the last parliamentary elections. Yet, voter turnout was shown to be high. I guess common people will not go to polling stations to vote in rigged elections,” he added.
Voting will be held in four phases in 480 upazilas on May 8, 23, 29, and June 5. 152 upazilas will go to polls in the first phase on May 8. In this year’s upazila elections, Awami League candidates are campaigning. But the party’s allies do not have much activity.
BNP conducting vigorous anti-voting campaigns To increase voter turnout and make the elections acceptable to the common people, the Awami League adopted the strategy of keeping candidacy open and not keeping party symbols. It gave instructions to ministers and MPs to prevent their family members and relatives from contesting the elections so that polling will remain free from party influence.
In the last few days, BNP’s organisational team ran anti-voting campaigns in the upazilas where voting is going to take place in the first phase. A total of five lakh leaflets have been distributed so far, BNP office sources said. BNP Senior Joint General Secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi distributed leaflets in Dhaka on Sunday, calling on people to boycott voting.
Jashore’s Manirampur and Keshabpur upazilas will go to polls in the first phase. In the last three days, BNP distributed anti-voting leaflets there.
Advocate Shaheed Md Iqbal Hossain, convener of Manirampur upazila unit of BNP and a former municipal mayor, told The Daily Messenger, “We are conducting anti-voting campaigns as per the instructions of the party’s central command. We are trying to make people understand that fair voting is not possible in the country during the Awami League regime.”
“Most people agree with us. They will not go to polling stations. People did not vote in the last parliamentary election either,” he added. However, Manirampur upazila Awami League unit Secretary Farooq Hossain, who is an upazila chairman candidate, said people want to go to polling stations. “However, BNP is misleading people. Still, I am hopeful that people will vote.”
Messenger/Fameema
