THE Dhaka North City Corporation mayoral by-election ended yesterday with very thin voters’ presence. There was widespread speculation that the ruling-party supported candidate is going to win in a big margin. News media reported that many city dwellers did not know whether they were among the voters while many were reluctant to cast vote in the election. Apparently, there was no campaign, no buzzing, no gossip over the DNCC by-election. The mayoral post fell vacant following the death of Annisul Huq on November 30, 2017. Besides, election to councillor posts in 36 new wards — 18 under the DNCC and 18 under the Dhaka South City Corporation – also took place. Most significantly, the councillor election also had no enthusiasm. The Chief Election Commissioner, however, dismissed his responsibility for the low voter turnout.
The CEC has said that political parties and its candidates were to blame for the lacklustre voter turnout in the DNCC polls. He made the remarks after casting his ballot at a polling centre in Uttara’s IES High School yesterday. “The Election Commission was not responsible for the low turnout,” the CEC said, and added: “I’ve said before that the voters’ turnout may be low for two reasons – the first being that this is a short-term election and polls will be conducted again next year. The other reason may be that voters didn’t anticipate a competitive election as some political parties have stayed away from the polls.” What’s true is that, the local government body election has lost its colour due to boycott by some parties. Several polling centres were seen empty in the morning as rains continued to batter the city during the voting period. Besides, the polling officials were seen idling away time.
We must say, making the local government body polls a participatory one is the main responsibility of the Election Commission. Earlier, these polls were out of political party control, at least in open front. Now, political parties are getting involved in these elections directly. Has there any necessity to politicise the local government bodies? We hope, the fittest candidate will win in the DNCC mayoral polls and he would serve the city people irrespective his party affiliation.
