Polls festivity gives way to frustration

The election fever that gripped the Gazipur city is gone.

Frustrated by the sudden postponement of the polls for three months, the city dwellers are now speculating on whether they will be able to elect their mayor before the expiry of the incumbent's tenure.

And if the election is not held in the next three months, the LGRD ministry will have the power to appoint an administrator to run the city corporation as the term of the incumbent mayor, who is a BNP leader, and councillors will expire on August 9.

The ministry officials say if the election is not held before the stipulated time, the government can appoint an administrator as per section 25 (1) of the city corporation law.

This provision was introduced in 2011, and before that, a mayor could continue to run the corporation even after the expiry of his tenure until his successor is elected.

Amid such a situation, the chamber judge of the Appellate Division is scheduled to hold a hearing today to determine the fate of an appeal seeking a stay on the High Court order that on Sunday halted the city corporation polls for three months.

BNP's mayoral candidate Hasan Uddin Sarker filed the appeal with the Supreme Court yesterday. A stay on the HC order may open the window for the Election Commission to hold the polls on May 15 as per the schedule.

His main rival, ruling Awami League candidate Jahangir Alam, followed his suit and decided to file appeal with the SC today seeking the same order.

Contacted, Jahangir said his lawyers started preparing to file the appeal today. “This is a deep-rooted conspiracy against the party and the government. A certain quarter hatched the conspiracy,” he said without mentioning any name.

Hasan Uddin said, “It is a dirty political game. Sensing defeat of [the ruling party-backed candidate], the government stopped the election using the court.”

His lawyer Sagir Hossain Leon said they will argue before the chamber judge today to have the HC order on the Gazipur city polls stayed.

He added the writ petition was filed with the HC with ill political motive to obstruct the process for holding the polls.

The postponement of the Gazipur city polls irked the councillor candidates besides mayoral forerunners as they have already invested money, labour and time.

Jakir Hossain, a councillor candidate in Ward 22, said all the preparations were completed and the stay order at the last moment hurt them both mentally and financially.

Monir Hossain, councillor candidate of Ward 27, said time, labour and money they have invested for the election that has to be reinvested when the election schedule will be announced again.

Voters are also not happy.

Rickshaw-puller Mosharraf Hossain of Ward no 29, said, "We saw a festivity but that has vanished all on a sudden."

Mozammel Hossain, a worker in a printing press in Munshipara of Gazipur, said candidates had ordered voter slips, leaflets and posters; many of those were printed and many orders got cancelled. “It is a huge loss for us.”

Interestingly, the EC that was in the dark when the HC stayed the city polls lags behind the main contenders for mayoral post in launching the legal battle against the stay order on the polls.

Talking to reporters at her office, Election Commissioner Kabita Khanam said the EC will decide on filing appeal after receiving a copy of the HC order.

She said the HC did not inform the EC about the writ petition challenging the legality of the Gazipur polls schedule. They came to know about the issue through media after the court issued the order.

On behalf of the EC, a lawyer on Sunday appeared before the HC bench and opposed staying the polls after the court asked him to place arguments.  The election commissioner, however, said the EC did not give him any “Vakalatnama” to represent it in this case.

Replying to another query whether other city elections will also be postponed, she said, “Any aggrieved person can go to court as law gives him the right. We announced the election schedule after getting clearance from the Local Government Division.”

She said the EC postponed the election showing respect to the court order.

The sudden postponement of Gazipur polls triggered speculative discussions in social media and public discourse whether the Khulna city polls too will have the same fate.

The bigger speculation is whether elections to three other city corporations -- Rajshahi, Sylhet and Barisal -- will be held within the deadline of July 19. All the mayors in the three city corporations are BNP leaders and they won the mayoral polls in 2013 by defeating AL-backed candidates.

If the elections are not held within the time, the LGRD ministry can appoint administrators in the city corporations.

The EC is likely to announce the schedule in October for holding the national polls in early December and for that it will have to do some preparatory work in September. So, after August, the EC would not be able to hold any local government polls this year as its focus would completely be on the national elections.