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Local Polls

Dress rehearsal promises further success

M Abul Kmam Azad
Monday's local government elections were more or less a success for the government and the Election Commission (EC), with some minor but important problems to be accounted for.
Absence of violence, turnout of a large number of voters and almost rigging free elections with the exception of some allegations in Barisal which probably should not be taken lightly, were some of the most pronounced features of the first polls under the current state of emergency presided over by a military backed caretaker government.
Almost dispute free poll results, again with the exception of Barisal, can be considered as the sign of the polls' credibility and fairness. But all that had to be earned at the expense of democracy under a state of emergency in full force.
Perhaps the biggest setback for the government is that their mission to bring honest and clean public representatives did fall short somewhat, as a large number of people with criminal records
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contested in the polls while one of the mayors-elect is currently in jail on charges of corruption and other crimes. He was put behind bars by the current government itself.
One thing however is amply clear that the public is very enthusiastic about their right to franchise, but the government's inadequacy in proriding ample opportunity for that has been proven once again through the problems of voter registration numbers and the subsequent return home of many voters from the polling stations without voting, despite the very expensive production of I voter list with photographs.
Although Ure elections, a key step towards restoring democracy, are being considered by the government a highly successful event, if the problems that manifested themselves in Monday's polls are not solved before the all important national election, there might be enough reasons to worry.
Legal confusions and disputes regarding electoral and political reforms that started with the coming of Fakhruddm Ahmed-led caretaker government should not be overlooked before the national election. Otherwise the very democracy for which everything is being done might eventually become endangered again.
Monday's polls which are being considered as a dress rehearsal for transition to democracy, however came as a big boost for political parties, who also got a flavour of political rights since the state of emergency had been imposed in January last year.
Participation of a large number of voters, who came out amid a state of emergency and voted to elect their representatives, are a testament to the people's keenness to see restoration of democracy sooner than later.
It now seems that the political parties will reorganise themselves in the run-up to the parliamentary election the government promised to hold by the end of this year.
Although only 1.2 million of the country's 80.5 million voters were eligible to vote in Monday's elections, the ballots were largely seen as a testing ground for the government's reforms and the new high-
tech voter list.
This time around candidates were selected giving priority to local leaders and activists, resulting in the election of three new faces as city mayors.
During the days of traditional electioneering, nominations used to come from central levels of political parties paying the least bit of attention to the opinions and sentiments of local people.
The traditional practice would end up electing one person repeatedly failing to meet changing aspirations of the voters.
Although, Awami League, one of the major parties in Bangladesh, got a landslide victory in the elections, it was however the current image crisis of its archrival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the contradiction between the latter's statements and activities regarding participation in the elections, helped the former's victory to quite an extent.
The victories of AL-backed candidates in Rajshahi and Khulna, both of which are known as strongholds of BNP and Jamaat, underscore that nominating the right candidate still remains an important factor in elections.
Last but not the least, Monday's elections proved once again that AL and BNP still rules the world of politics in this country, in absence of a credible alternative yet.