MAYORAL aspirants to two Dhaka City Corporations started campaigns in a grossly uneven field from Monday while the ruling party backed candidates are crisscrossing city lanes in festive mood, the opposition BNP backed candidates are unsure whether they are inviting more trouble for themselves.
The campaign environment is facing serious setbacks showing government’s intolerance to free and fair mayoral elections. The impression is clear that Dhaka mayoral seats must be retained by the government supported candidates. In respect of Chittagong mayoral election the government does not appear to be so adamant to win.
The Election Commission does not seem to feel too much concerned to see that the level playing field is maintained for the mayoral elections to be free and fair. On Wednesday Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan at a meeting in the city said, as reported in an English daily, that “Jamaat-BNP men are killers and Khaleda Zia is a murderer. Those killers will not be given any chance to take to the streets”, meaning physically obstructing them from electioneering. The Election Commission raised no objection.
The proper thing for the Election Commission to do would be to express its inability to hold the election free and fair if the government does not refrain from interfering with the election process.
Metropolitan Joint Police Commissioner’s assertion that anybody having an arrest warrants against him will not be spared from arrest, no matter he is an election candidate in city polls also appears unwarranted if the election are meant to be free. Such statements are not helpful for opposition to have faith about the Election Commission’s ability or spine to protect opposition candidates in their efforts to conduct election campaign without fear of police action or physical interference.
In our view the government must not miss the last opportunity to convince anybody that it believes in the politics of free elections. The election engineers of the government have to prove their efficiency to ensure victory of the government chosen candidates. Only the government can stop them. It will be wrong for the government to rely on non-political election manipulators.
In fact BNP faced setback from the beginning in Dhaka North following its mayoral candidate Abdul Awal Mintoo’s nomination papers were declared invalid. However, they have fielded a second candidate-son of Mr Mintoo.
But in Dhaka South where former minister and mayor of undivided Dhaka city Mirza Abbas is running with the opposition support, his campaigns are also failing to pick up in his absence.
He has reportedly 60 police cases against him apparently on political ground and he is avoiding public appearance for the last three months to avoid arrests and other harassment. His wife is now running a namesake campaign when other party leaders and most workers are either in jail or on the run to avoid arrest in false political cases.
The blame has to be borne fully by the Election Commission for not ensuring that during election there will be no arrest or police harassment. It is also expected that Election Commission will ask the Ministers not to threat of physical consequence if the opposition leaders join the campaign.
We see that the government has suddenly given the city elections including election to Chittagong City Corporation at a time when the opposition is in a serious movement of clashes with the government all over the country creating panic in public mind.
We welcomed the elections of the city corporations in the hope that the government will show some change of heart and allow the opposition come out of violent politics.
It is a big disappointment that the Election Commission is unable or unwilling to play its part courageously.
Our anxiety is that without compromise there cannot be a government strong enough to survive in power. Dictatorships fail and collapse for their own failures. To understand the importance of the opposition for good government, one needs to be a political leader. The challenge is to prove that we have political leadership.
