Circus in the times of elections

Illustration: TBS

With posters and festoons almost spilling out from a bag on his shoulder, Rashid Mia was busy distributing election leaflets in an alley in Chattogram city. He had come all the way from Sunamganj's Dirai upazila.

A candidate nominated by the Bangladesh Sangskritik Muktijote for the Chattogram-10 by-polls, slated for 30 July, he was campaigning alone, as there were no supporters and workers of his party.

As his party is registered, he can contest the polls even without supporters. But if he were an independent candidate, he would have to secure 1% signatures from his constituency and only then stand for the polls.

Talking to The Business Standard, Rashid said, "I wanted to run for Dhaka-17 by-polls, but it was not possible as another candidate of the party was there. Later, I decided to contest the by-election to Chattogram-10. People in Chattogram are very cordial. I believe I can win their hearts in the next 15 days of campaigning."

Rashid, who has been staying at a residential hotel in the city, has won a few admirers owing to his dedication. Many people came to meet him since news of his campaign broke.

In between meeting people of Halishahar Nutan Bazar area of the port city in the afternoon of 14 July, the MP candidate said, "I want to serve people and work for people's welfare after the election as a lawmaker. And I also want to be the law minister."

According to his election affidavit, Rashid is self-educated. The 44-year-old has also begun preparing for his SSC from Open University. He couldn't sit for his exams last year as he failed to register on time.

Formerly an expatriate for 18 years, his annual income from agriculture is Tk2 lakh. His wife and children live in a joint family in Sunamganj.

Rashid is not new to the political scene. He previously contested in Dirai municipal polls in 2020. He bagged the lowest 135 votes among eight candidates.

Rashid said, "Since I got the nomination for the election in Chattogram, friends and relatives have been supporting me. So far I have received about Tk2 lakh. They also have assured me to provide more during the election."

As per election rules in the 11th parliamentary election, a candidate can spend a maximum of Tk25 lakh for the campaign, said Md Hasanuzzaman, regional election officer in Chattogram.

Rashid's nomination has also ruffled some feathers.

Dirai Upazila Vice Chairman Md Mohan Chowdhury told TBS, "How can he get a party's nomination for MP post if he is not qualified to be a UP member? I do not understand the matter."

Socheton Nagorik Committee and TIB Chattogram President Akhtar Kabir Chowdhury said, "It is better to call these things a mockery rather than an election. It is natural that there will be such candidates in this kind of election."

Abu Layes, a top leader of Bangladesh Sangskritik Muktijote, said, "As our central body member, we nominated him for the election in the parliamentary seat."

Meanwhile, Rashid, who has the "Stick" as his symbol, isn't expecting an easy ride.

He will be going up against Awami League's Md Mohiuddin Bacchu, alongside nominees of the Jatiya Party, Trinomool BNP and an independent candidate.

After the death of Chattogram-10 MP Dr Afsarul Ameen at a Dhaka hospital on June 2, the constituency (Doublemooring-Halishahar-Khulshi) fell vacant.

Meanwhile, Rashid Mia's party, which was registered around 10 years ago, also doesn't have an office in the port city, making campaigning difficult.

The party's central office is in Dhaka. A visit there, however, made room for more questions than answers.

It is not difficult to get to the office, located behind Priyangon Market near Newmarket.

A name plate prominently placed in front of the relatively old building identifies it as the party office, which is located on the second floor of the five-storey building.

The building also houses two private institutions and another political party – Bangladesh Jatiya League.

It is said that Dr Shahriar Eftekhar Fuad, chairman of the Bangladesh Sangskritik Muktijote, owns the building, where he resides on the third floor.

Upon entry to the office, this correspondent found only the office assistant Rana.

A broken light meant there was little light in the reception area, which had a few sofas and lounge chairs.

On the left was a large room, which was used by lawyer and party chairman Dr Shahriar Eftekhar Fuad as his law chamber.

There were two other rooms, a dining room and a small meeting room.

Moving ahead, there was a room sporting a banner which read the Exchange and Discussion Meeting.

The TBS then caught up with the head of the party's management board Md Shah Jamal Amirul.

Asked why another political party had an office in their central office, he said, "Actually we have an alliance named Gono Muktijote. And the Bangladesh National League is the party under our alliance. They are not registered with the Election Commission."

He also said the presence of a law chamber did not interfere with the party's workings.

"We have offices in 6-7 districts now. As we are preparing for the national elections, offices will be taken up in various districts from next month."

Asked why the party didn't have any office in an important city like Chattogram, he said there was a "gap" in organisational expansion in the city.

But there would be an office there after next month, he said.

Asked why their nominee for Chattogram-10 was a man from Sunamganj who was campaigning alone, Amirul said, "Since we don't have activities there, there were no local candidates. The candidate had an interest, that's why we nominated him. Moreover, it will deepen our understanding ahead of the national elections."

He also said as Rashid, the candidate, wasn't a native of Chattogram, he had to campaign alone.

"But he is a very hardworking leader. He campaigns day and night."

He also said Rashid would contest the national elections from his constituency in Sunamganj.

The preparation for national elections was another reason why workers were not being sent to Chattogram.

Asked why their candidate nominated for the recently concluded Dhaka-17 by-polls only got 64 votes, Amirul said it was down to the lack of interest from voters.

"We also did not run any physical campaign for this. Our candidate has only campaigned a little online. No other candidate, including the AL's one, had any such campaign in this election."

The Muktijote's candidate for Dhaka-17 by-polls was Md Akter Hossain, a resident of Dhaka, who mentioned being a journalist and editor of a weekly newspaper in his affidavit.

Amirul said the party's main interest remained the national elections, where they would contest all 300 seats, using the full-force of their 50,000 activists across the country.

"Another thing is that we don't want to get involved in any kind of trouble before the national elections. This is why we are participating in the election inconspicuously."

So why should people vote for the Bangladesh Sangskritik Muktujote?

"People will vote for us because of our thinking out of box and spirit of reform. We will have a meeting next month where we will make some demands to the government. We will start a movement to meet the demands. Since then we will be in the field till the elections. Then people will understand our capability and will support us," Amirul said.

In recent years, the Election Commission has registered a number of political parties, many of whom have yet to make their presence felt.

Although 93 applied this time around, 12 made it through the primary selection and two were selected. Of those, field level information of four were found to be correct. A high-level committee was formed to scrutinise the four and of those, two made the final selection, bring the total number of registered parties to 42.

The two who passed also have an interesting profile.

The Bangladesh Supreme Party (BSP), which was recently selected for registration, has as its chief Shahzada Syed Saifuddin Ahmad Maizbhandari, who has been accused by his own brothers and sisters of grabbing the ancestral property.

They requested the EC not to provide registration to the BSP.

The party has its office in a residential building, where the chief's siblings also live.

One of the siblings, Shahzada Syed Shahid Uddin Ahmed told TBS that Saifuddin, the oldest among them, was illegally occupying the ancestral property worth more than Tk100 crore.

"It is a residential building. We live here. How can there be an office in this house? We are living in fear now and suffering from insecurity. He scares us with terrorists," he alleged.

Regarding this, BSP Chairman Shahzada Syed Saifuddin told TBS, "It is a conspiracy against me. The EC may investigate further. All property is mine because my father gave it to me."

When asked about the EC's statement on this, Election Commissioner Md Alamgir said the matter is for the civil court.

"According to our law, one party can have own or rented office. A complaint came, if there are more complaints, we will investigate it further. We will listen to both sides and then make a decision. Now we have not registered anyone finally. We will hear the complaints that are coming, or more will come. There is time until 26 July to file complaints."

Then there is the Bangladesh Supreme Party (BSP).

Its office is tucked away in a four-storey building on an alley in the capital's Shah Ali Bagh. The office does not appear in Google Maps.

A banner in the office shows the BSP chairman's photo and the party's five ideals.

Md Ibrahim Mian, the BSP office secretary, said, "We are pacifists, so we want to establish peace. We want to build an interfaith religion, establish Sufism. We want to establish a corruption-free country."

He said although the party was criticised as not being too present in the field, Ibrahim said they had offices in 40 districts

"We want to contest in 220 seats in the upcoming parliamentary election. We have a big vote bank."

He said the party is run with its own funds.

"Many people want to donate to us but we are not taking it. Our chairman used to do export-import business. But left it; he is giving time to parties. He is the owner of a huge amount of money by birth. He ran 48 madrasas alone. Several hundred imam khatibs depend on him."

The EC has said that according to the law, it is mandatory for a political party to have a central committee as well as 22 district and 100 upazila offices.

Former election commissioner Brigadier General (Rtd) M Sakhawat Hussain said, "A circus is going on in all this process. How can a party get a registration which has no activity, no one knows about it. EC should provide detailed information about the investigation of those parties."

About Muktijote, he said, "It's ridiculous that this kind of party takes part in the important national election. I have recommended several times that the small parties should take part in only the local election. After securing a good percentage there which will be fixed by the EC, they can take part in national elections."