14-party picks mayoral candidates for 4 cities

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The Awami League (AL)-led 14-party combine last night announced the names of its mayoral candidates in the August 4 polls to four city corporations.

The announcement came after two-day long discussions among its leaders.

Held at AL acting President Zillur Rahman’s Gulshan residence, the protracted meeting unanimously nominated Talukder Abdul Khaleque for Khulna City Corporation (KCC), Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran for Sylhet City Corporation (SCC), Shawkat Hossain Hiron for Barisal City Corporation (BCC) and Fazle Hossain Badsha for Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC).

Of the four contenders on the combine ticket, three belong to AL and the other to Workers Party.

Khaleque is a member of the AL Central Working Committee (ALCWC) and the president of Khulna city AL, Kamran is the president of Sylhet city AL, Hiron is the convenor of Barisal city AL while Badsha is a politburo member of the Workers Party.

Khaleque is on trial accused of misappropriating Tk 1.05 crore of government funds allocated for constructing a college building at Rampal upazila in Bagerhat. The now-defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption filed the case in 2004.

Kamran, the incumbent SCC mayor, has been detained since May last year on corruption charges while Hiron is among the graft suspects listed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

Earlier in the day, ALCWC, the highest decision-making body of the party, endorsed the nominations with Zillur Rahman in the chair.

However, the names were finalised at the 14-party meeting last night.

Unveiling the list, the AL acting chief urged the coalition rank and file to unite in favour of the candidates. He also called on the party leaders aspiring to mayoral posts to withdraw their nominations to have a single contender and ensure victory.

Zillur said hopefully there would be no problem after the announcement.

AL had been in a dilemma over 14-party nomination for the post of RCC mayor. Finally, on instructions from its President Sheikh Hasina, it decided to nod approval for Badsha.

The Workers Party leader was the coalition candidate also in the last RCC polls. He lost the close-run race after polling around 76,000 votes.

Party insiders said Hasina, who is now in London, had talked to the AL senior leaders over phone and asked them to pick Badsha instead of party leader AHM Khairuzzaman Liton who has the entire Rajshahi AL rallying behind him.

Lately, the political parties have been quite busy nominating their candidates for the forthcoming polls.

Legal experts however observe that parties cannot chose candidates in an election that is non-partisan.

According to the electoral code of conduct, the local polls are non-partisan and the contestants are not allowed to use their political affiliations, party names and portraits of leaders during electioneering.

DISPUTE STILL PERSISTS
Even though the 14-party combine has chosen their candidates for mayors in the four city corporation elections, disputes remain in all the city corporations in the form of multiple candidates from the alliance.

Apart from Kamran, four mayoral candidates from AL are still officially in the race in Sylhet as AL leaders Dewan Farid Gazi and Iftekhar Hossain Shamim withdrew their candidacy on Wednesday and Tuesday.

Out of the four AL leaders, Inamul Haque Chowdhury Bir Protik and Babrul Hossain Babul are expected to withdraw today.

However, city AL Secretary Misbah Uddin Siraj and Sylhet District AL Vice-president Abduj Jahir Chowdhury Sufian are yet to decide on withdrawing.

In Khulna, AL leader Enayet Ali told The Daily Star last night that he is determined to run for the post of Khulna City Corporation mayor under the banner of Nagorik Forum. Apart from 14-party-chosen Talukder Abdul Khaleque, Enayet is the only mayoral candidate from the alliance officially still in the race.

In Rajshahi, AL rank and file closed the city AL office immediately after hearing the news that Badsha received the 14-party endorsement.

City AL President Masudul Haque Dulu and General Secretary AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, mayoral candidates of RCC, have vowed to contest in the election.

Liton, an ALCWC member, told The Daily Star that he would be in the race under the banner of Nagorik Committee as it has nominated him.

Dulu told The Daily Star that since the election is non-partisan he would run as an independent candidate.

In Barisal, apart from 14-party-chosen Shawkat Hossain Hiron there are three mayoral candidates from the alliance officially still in the race.

AL leader Alamgir Khan Alo said he would withdraw his candidacy as a show of respect to the party decision.

AL leader and mayoral candidate Rejaul Haque Harun said he has not decided about withdrawing his candidacy while AL leader Mahmudul Haque Khan Mamun said he would run for mayor if the people of his locality wanted him to.

14-PARTY MEETING
The meeting of the 14-party combine finalised the nominations for the four city corporation elections and elaborately discussed the latest political situation of the country.

Briefing newsmen after the meeting, Zillur said they would protest strongly if the government holds upazila polls before national elections. He demanded holding of the parliamentary polls as soon as possible.

He also demanded immediate withdrawal of the state of emergency, permanent release of Sheikh Hasina, measures to control price hike of essentials, resumption of trade union activities and trial of war criminals.

Demanding immediate withdrawal of the emergency, he said the situation in Bangladesh does not require the state of emergency.

Criticising the finance adviser’s remarks on price hike of essentials, Zillur said people of an independent country cannot go hungry and the government should take immediate measurers to curb the price hike of essentials.

Senior coalition leaders including Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta, Rashed Khan Menon, Motia Chowdhury, Nurul Islam, Bimal Biswas, Dilip Barua, Mainuddin Khan Badal, Shirin Akhtar, Abdus Samad were present at the meeting among others.

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