Two Bangladesh parliamentary constituencies, Netrokona-3 and Netrokona-4, where so-called elections took place along with polling across 296 other seats on January 7, present a Dickensian picture of contrasts – while one witnessed relatively clean polling, the other saw wholesale electoral rigging.
Also, while Netrokona-3 landed a defeat for the Awami League candidate, Netrokona-4 threw up winner from the same party.
In Netrokona-3 (Constituency Number 159), the two main contenders were the Awami League’s Asim Kumar Ukil and the Awami League’s ‘dummy’ nominee Iftiqaruddin Talukdar Pintu who ended up clearing the nomination process before contesting the polls as an ‘independent’.
He was represented by the ‘Truck’ symbol. Neither Pintu nor any other candidates, including a second independent, Trinamool BNP, Islami Oikkya Jote and Jatiya Party contestants.
Once the election ended at 4 pm on January 7 – a day marked by countrywide vote boycott by a massive majority of the electorate and egregious forms of electoral irregularities, ballot stuffing and other novel methods of rigging – the results threw up an unexpected loser: Ukil.
Ukil, an influential Awami Leaguer supposedly close to the party’s power structure, was the sitting MP and was the party’s cultural affairs secretary.
In the January 7, 2024, election, Ukil secured 74,550 and Pintu 76,803 votes. Manjur Qader Qureishi, the second ‘independent’ contestant (‘Eagle’ symbol) ended up third, polling 5,460 votes.
The three other ‘also ran’ were Mizanur Rahman Khan (Trinamool BNP), Mohammad Ehtesham Sarwar (Islami Oikkya Jote) and Mohammad Jasimuddin Bhuiyan (Jatiya Party). These three managed to get only 327, 284 and 290 votes, respectively.
Netrokona-3 has 394,513 total registered voters and there were a total of 149 polling centres. On January 7, merely 157,714 voters cast valid votes while 236,799 voters did not exercise their franchise.
“The vote boycott call was a success at Netrokona-3 although, admittedly, the ballot-casting exercise was relatively clean with few or no instances of electoral rigging,” said Abdul Amin (name changed), an electoral officer who oversaw voting at the Gopalashram Bhairab Chandra High School polling centre.
Besides being on official election duty, Amin, a resident of nearby Khaliajuri, is a keen observer of Netrokona and national-level politics.
He said, “while anti-incumbency did play a role in Ukil’s defeat, the party leadership could easily have ensured his win; but that was not to be because the Awami League’s internal politics played an important role. Ukil did cry foul, claiming that communal politics ensured his defeat, but this charge is baseless. His constituency does not have too many Hindu voters anyway”.
However, in adjoining Netrokona-4 constituency (Number 160), where Awami League top-level machinations ensured the exit of local favourite Shafi Ahamed at the controversial nomination filing stage, the electoral picture was in stark contrast to the experience in Netrokona-3.
Netrokona-4 comprises three upazilas or sub-districts – Mohanganj, Madan and Khaliajuri – and the total number of registered voters is 349,664.
Once Ahamed was “ousted” from the electoral race, the field was left open for the Awami League’s Sajjadul Hassan, the younger brother of Supreme Court Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan and a former Senior Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Sajjadul Hassan bent rules and received support from the judiciary which took steps to dismiss a petition that had raised the issue of his inability to contest the poll since, at the time of the election, he was still in the midst of a mandatory three-year cooling off period, following retirement from government service.
Now, the election result for Netrokona-4 constituency appears to be skewed in Sajjadul Hassan’s favour, reportedly because of massive rigging resorted to by Awami League cadres “post 2:30-3:00 pm when they took to ballot stuffing and indiscriminate and open stamping of votes”.
He supposedly obtained 188,068 votes or 95.87 per cent of all the ballots cast. His closest rival, Mohammad Liaquat Ali Khan Advocate (‘independent’ candidate, ‘Plough’ symbol) managed to get only 5,759, votes.
The other contestants – all ‘independents’ – Mohammad Al Mamun (‘Golden Duck’ symbol) secured 1,715 and Mohammad Mushfiqur Rahman (‘Mashal’ or ‘Torch’ symbol) got 634 votes.
