Image crisis of some central leaders, ministers and lawmakers of the ruling Awami League in their respective areas and internal feuds are being seen as major factors for setbacks suffered by the AL-backed chairman candidates in Sylhet Division most of the upazilas during Thursday’s voting, party-insiders said as a serious soul-searching is underway after the second consecutive shock.
They think though internal feuds and rebel candidacies appeared as a bar to win of the AL-chosen aspirants in both the first and second phases of upazila polls, image crisis of national leaders came out to be the main cause of the bad results the party reaped in local-body polls.
Selection of wrong people, influence of lawmakers in setting candidates and faulty steps of a party presidium member and a joint secretary, who are entrusted with monitoring upazila polls, were also blamed for debacle of AL-backed candidates.
Organizing secretaries of AL said that ‘negative’ activities of some central and influential leaders spelt setbacks for many of the chairman candidates.
Available statistics show that AL-backed chairman candidates won in 7 upazilas, out of 16 in the first and second phases of polls held on February 19 and 27 while BNP won the race in 7 upazilas.
With BNP ally Jamaat’s surprise showing in the polls, the opposition camp does have every reason to have a loud laugh although they still have many complaints about the conduct of the vote and the ruling party’s role.
As the BNP-led 19-party alliance boycotted the January 5 parliamentary polls, the results of the local-body elections are crucial for both the political camps because it may be a measure of their popularity.
BNP 3 , AL wins one in Sylhet UZ polls
The second phase of Upazila Parishad election concluded in three upazila of the Division on Thursday, Awami League supported candidate won one chairman post while BNP backed candidates got three chairman posts.
In Balaganj upazila, BNP-backed candidate Abdal Miah got 53,417 votes and unofficially elected as chairman while his nearest candidate AL-supported candidate Mostakur Rahman Mofur got 43,887 votes.
In Dirai upazila, BNP-backed candidate Hafizur Rahman got 45,744 votes and unofficially elected as chairman while his nearest candidate AL-supported candidate Altaf Uddin got 43,760 votes.
