Ehsanul Haque Jasim :
The BNP-led 20-party alliance is joining the December 30 municipal polls amid fear of arrest and harassment of its leaders, activists and the candidates. The candidates filed nomination, taking the risk of facing arrest, harassment and other troubles, said the alliance leaders and candidates.
BNP’s spokesman Dr Asaduzzaman Ripon and Jamaat-e-Islami Acting Secretary General Dr Shafiqur Rahman said, they fear that their candidates will face unfavourable situation in every stages of the country’s first ever party-basis municipal polls.
They said that the 20-party alliance’s mayor candidates are now under the surveillance of the law enforcers, and they could not come out in the field due to repressive acts of the government. Some of the candidates have already been arrested and they are now facing detention.
BNP has nominated party’s mayor candidates in 234 municipalities, while the party shared one mayor candidate with Jatiya Party (Kazi Zafar faction) and another with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Jatiya Party’s candidate will contest the polls of Bheramara Municipality in Kushtia with ‘Sheaf of Paddy’, the election symbol of the BNP, while LDP’s candidate in Chittagong’s Chandanais Municipality will contest with LDP’s election symbol ‘Umbrella’.
The BNP has already finalised the list of the mayor candidates of the 236 municipalities. However, the list does not include any candidate from the Jamaat-e-Islami, as they filed nomination papers in over 50 municipalities as independent candidates.
The alliance sources said that the sharing of seat issue with the Jamaat-e-Islami would be settled after finalisation of candidatures to avoid possible harassment. A BNP senior leader said that nominations of the 20-party alliance leaders might be cancelled in several places following the government’s influence. In this backdrop, they gave candidates in all the municipalities. They also gave dummy candidates in the municipalities.
The leader also said that BNP might share 20 out of 236 mayoral posts with Jamaat. The Jamaat will contest the polls with independent symbols and later it will be accommodated under the alliance umbrella, he added.
Dr Asaduzzaman Ripon said that they are joining the municipal polls under the 20-party alliance banner. Saying that police already arrested Mymensingh’s Nandail municipal incumbent Mayor and BNP’s nominated candidate Azizul Islam, Dr Ripon said that the other mayor candidates are also in fear of arrest and harassment.
He alleged that the government wants to hold the municipal polls unilaterally, by arresting the opposition leaders and activists and also the mayor candidates. It (government) may take any other legal harassment against the 20-party’s candidates, he added.
