N'ganj defeat moves BNP into soul-searching

A day after the massive defeat of its mayoral candidate in the Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) election, BNP yesterday started soul-searching to find causes behind the frustrating results and other factors.

Apart from the party leaders, BNP also assigned experts and professionals to do the analysis, according to party sources.

Shakhawat Hossain Khan, who was outplayed by Awami League's Selina Hayat Ivy by about 80,000 votes, is also working to send an assessment report about his defeat to the party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, a close aide of the BNP candidate said.

Meanwhile, breaking his silence over the party's defeat, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday said they took the NCC election as a partial victory of the party's movement for ensuring fair polls in the country.

“Through this election, we achieved a partial success of our long-running movement for fair election, because the Election Commission was forced to at least ensure an apparently healthy election atmosphere,” he said.

He, however, said BNP was investigating what actually happened inside the election process. “We're looking into the issue and conducting further examination. We'll come up with clearer information about it after the investigation.”

Fakhrul made the remarks to reporters after visiting ailing Nagorik Oikya Convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.

Asked about Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's remarks that Narayanganj's people gave BNP a fitting reply through ballots, Fakhrul said it was a local body election, and it was wrong to predict the national election results based on this.

National issues did not reflect prominently in the local body election.

Another BNP senior leader, Moudud Ahmed, said the Awami League should hold the national election under a non-party government right now if they thought that people really voted for them in the Narayanganj polls.

“Those who will win will rule the country. This is certainly the greatest opportunity for the government,” he told a discussion of pro-BNP organisation Nagorik Forum, at the capital's Jatiya Press Club.

He also alleged that there was no level playing field for all mayor contestants of NCC.

Moudud said the BNP candidate faced many problems in the election, while Ivy enjoyed various “favours” from law enforcement agencies and local administration.

He, however, did not explain the “favours”.

Asked about the soul-searching, BNP Standing Committee Member Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, who was chief election coordinator for Shakhawat, said the party had already started looking for the reasons behind the defeat.

“In doing so, we will also try to find out whether the respective BNP leaders of local and central committees failed to play their due role in the election,” he said.

Alleging that there were anomalies in vote counting and inconsistencies between actual voter attendance and the turn-out rate, Goyeshwar said they would also investigate the issues.

SHAKHAWAT'S ASSESSMENT

A close aide of Shakhawat said his defeat in all the vote centres attached to top BNP leaders in Narayanganj and the victory of their relatives in councillor posts proved that the local BNP leaders did not work seriously in favour of him.

For example, Shakhawat and Ivy secured 670 and 837 votes in the Islamia Fazil College vote centre where BNP's Narayanganj district President Toimur Alom Khandaker cast his vote, he said.

Toimur's brother Maksudul Alam, who won the councillor post, secured 1,231 votes at the polling station, meaning that all the pro-BNP voters who voted for Toimur's brother did not vote for the BNP mayoral candidate, he added.