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CCC gets a new mayor

Voters opt for change
THE long awaited Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) election has been completed. The mayoralty has been intensely contested and what has been refreshingly absent was the charged atmosphere in which the past electoral campaigns used to be conducted and the animosity that used to pervade the post election scene. We offer our congratulations to the mayor-elect Manjur Alam and hope that his supporters would not go overboard while celebrating his victory. Untoward incidents should not mar a good election.
We are relived that for the major part the election has gone peacefully barring a few isolated incidents after the close of polls that should not have happened. We are happy to note that there was not the old picture of clashes and mudslinging between the contestants. It is certainly a big hurrah for democracy and for that compliments and congratulations are certainly due to many.
First and foremost the voters, and in general the people of Chittagong, deserve our compliments for the way they participated in the election. It was nice to see that the electoral activities did not hamper the daily life of the citizens, something that we are not used to seeing. And for this the candidates, their workers, and the political parties, particularly the two major ones, deserve our appreciation.
And for its part the government, and indeed the ruling party, must be credited for the fact that there was no disposition to bring any undue pressure on the local administration, as ruling parties in the past were wont to do, to influence the result. All these bode well for democracy in Bangladesh. While we commiserate with the erstwhile mayor Mr. Mohiuddin for his loss, we thank him for the grace with which he has accepted the result. And in quite a departure from past practice the ruling party has accepted the result, for which it deserves our compliments. The PM has congratulated the new mayor on his victory, which is as it should be in a country committed to the values of democracy.
The Chief Election Commissioner and his team deserve our thanks too for giving us a free and fair election. It has come out with flying colours in the way it handled the CCC polls. It not only laid down appropriate code of conduct, but also ensured that those were not violated.
As for the election result, it unmistakably reflects the desire of the people of Chittagong for change, and perhaps one could say that for the AL to sponsor Mohiuddin was a strategic error. After all, the erstwhile mayor has had a very long stint in that post, and it is only natural that people of Chittagong would like to see a new face with new ideas to better their life and exploit the city's potential through good planning.
As for the ruling party it must try to grasp the underlying message the result has conveyed. It certainly is a wakeup call, and the AL would do well to indulge in some soul searching. Although the may-oral election was technically a nonparty one, and the result to a large extent reflects the dynamics of local politics, the fact is that the two candidates represented the two major political parties. Thus there is need to ponder upon the fact whether it was Mohiuddin's performance alone that has had a bearing on the outcome or whether it is also the ruling party's showing in the last sixteen months that had anything to do with his defeat.