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The majesty of public opinion

Ruling alliance's combined might flounders in face of popularity

MAHFUZ ANAM
There is no question that the ruling party had put its full might, except for dragging the party chief and prime minister, Khaleda Zia herself, to win the Chittagong mayoral election. Most of the nine ministers of the area, several others from the neighbouring constituencies, almost all
party leaders including Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and Senior Joint Secretary Tarique Rahman could not sway the public to vote a majority for Mir Nasir.
Tarique's appeal on behalf of "Zia family" and invoking the memory of his father's assassination (President Ziaur Rahman was killed in Chittagong Circuit House in an
abortive coup in 1981) did not seem to arouse the type of sympathetic public reaction as was expected by those who advised him to bring the memory of his father into the election campaign.
There is also no question about the money that was spent by Mir Nasir and all the official backing and administrative support that he got. The partisan role of the police commissioner and that of the divisional commissioner -- the former was removed and the latter reprimanded by the Election Commission - clearly indicate the complicity, forced or otherwise, of the local officialdom.
Add to that the relentless campaigning of the ruling alliance candidate over several months reaching high intensity in the last two. (One wonders how a sitting minister could absent himself from his official duties for such a long time. Are there no rules of service for a minister? We are not aware that he took leave from his duties). We cannot also forget the natural anti-incumbency tendency of Bengali voters. We love to pull the pompous power holder down.
Why all this did not affect Mohiuddin, who returned to power for the third consecutive term and that also by a lead of more than 91,000 votes? The lead says it all. It waxes eloquent about the 'Majesty of Public Opinion'. This to us is the biggest message from the Chittagong mayoral election. If a candidate is genuinely a people's person, then all machinations come to naught and that is what happened.
It is our view that the Chittagong election is a watershed for democracy in Bangladesh. It shows that people can exert their will even when the dice is loaded, and in Chittagong it was loaded. It also shows that a cleverly, determinedly and vigorously run election with a genuinely popular candidate can overcome huge odds to bring out the people's verdict. The arrogance of big parties that election sways on party symbols and not by the popularity of individual candidates has been decisively debunked by Mohiuddin. The centrality of the popularity of the candidate and his close links with the voters came through brilliantly in this election.
Mohiuddin has a lot to teach our politicians about how to conduct elections. His decision, though being an Awami League frontranking leader, not to be a party candidate was a masterstroke. By being a nominee of Nagorik Committee he opened up the gateway for other smaller parties and non-party people to join his campaign. Thus from the very start he had a wider base to work from than he would have had by just being a one party candidate.
His ability to harness such stalwarts as Dr Kamal Hossain and Prof Badruddoza Chowdhury and to make them actively participate in his campaign speak not only of Mohiuddin's sagacity but also his popularity with a wide spectrum of leaders. He decision to shift the focus from a bipolar contest between the AL and the BNP-led alliance and make it one between the ruling alliance and a crosssection of political opinions made, in our view, the decisive difference at the end of the day.
There is also a lot to be said about conducting the election itself. Not only did Mohiuddin run a highly effective campaign, but he also very meticulously managed and monitored election-day proceedings including keeping the pressure on until the results were actually out. The inexplicable one-and-a-half-hour delay in announcing the results proved the wisdom of his tactics.
A semblance of sanity appears to have prevailed on both the major parties as Chittagong elections ultimately, to our great relief and surprise, ended peacefully. A word of commendation for both parties is in order, for without their clear decision to keep things peaceful this would not have happened.
For the opposition this election shows that all is not lost as far as elections being a means to removing the incumbent from power is concerned. Money, muscle, governmental oppression and administrative collusion can give the ruling party of the day tremendous advantage but not a decisive one. People are the ultimate wielders of power if they are inspired with the right kind of candidates; the right messages and mobilised effectively under some sort of unifying campaign.
For the ruling party also all is not lost. The victory of the opposition can become a credit for the government. It can be used to restore some semblance of credibility (which it totally lost after the disastrous and shameful performance in Dhaka-10 by-elections) in the public mind that elections can reflect genuine public opinion. It made a fundamental mistake by attaching too much importance to one single election. By bringing the prestige of the whole party and all its alliance members behind Mir Nasir, the ruling alliance has made Mohiuddin's victory appear as a rebuff to them all which, if left to its own local devises, would not have appeared so. Still it can take solace in the fact that any victory of public opinion, even if it amounts to a defeat of the party in power, becomes, in a wider sense, a positive element for the government of the day.
As for us the voters, without being a supporter of Mohiuddin or his opponent, we have a lot to celebrate. This was clearly the victory of the more popular candidate. It was a victory of the public opinion, of the ordinary people and of democracy. It was a victory of our democracy, of the ability of our voters to express their opinion in spite of intimidation, allurement and money. Through this election our faith in the electoral process stands renewed and reinvigorated.