Sylhet city poll turnout to fall even lower amid rains, boycotts

The Sylhet City Coporation elections on Wednesday are most likely to be tedious with much lower voter turnout than in previous polls amid boycott by big opposition parties, muscle flexing concerns and continued rains.

Turnout was already set to be lower and now new boycotts and rains further dim chances for a vibrant election.

Torrential rains threaten flooding in some city areas during polls, and as of Tuesday some polling centres were already flooded. Returning Officer Foysal Quader has also acknowledged rain could impact voter turnout. If the situation improves, mayoral and councillor candidates would bring their respective voters to the polling centres, he hoped.

Concerns over mismanagement and anarchy also loom large to discourage turnout.

Incumbent Mayor Ariful Haque Choudhury, from the biggest opposition party BNP, had already boycotted the elections and later Islmai Andolon Bangladesh, the next strongest party to challenge the ruling party in the mayoral polls, also pulled out over rigging and violence concerns.

Next in line, Jatiya Party's Nazrul Islam Babul is a much weaker rival to worry Awami League's Anwaruzzaman Chowdhury but he too claims to face threatening phone calls from Anwaruzzaman's men.

The third and last party candidate in the mayoral polls is from Zaker Party. Among the total seven mayoral candidates, the rest are independent candidates including Salahuddin Rimon, now expelled from BNP.

For the 42 ward councillor posts, over 50 BNP candidates are vying to win, although the party's city-level command claims to have expelled all of them. About 20 candidates from the banned Jamaat-e-Islami are also vying for ward councillor posts. These opposition candidates are expected to draw some voters to polling centres.

Islami Andolon Bangladesh mayoral candidate Maulana Mahmudul Hasan withdrew himself from the polls on 12 June on central commands following an attack on the party's Nayeb-e-Amir Mufti Fayzul Karim during the recently held Barishal City Corporation polls. The attack raised concerns that ruling party members would prevent strong opposition candidates from winning city polls even if the rivals can secure enough votes.

Of the total 190 polling centres, the election commission has already marked 132 as risky due to security and violence risks besides natural disaster concerns.

Ruling party's mayoral candidate Anwaruzzaman has, however, shrugged off such concerns asking voters to come and cast their ballots even if they would not be for Anwaruzzaman himself.

About rain issues, he said these are common in Sylhet city and people are too familiar with the calamity to avoid venturing out. Concerning allegations of violent threats from Jatiya Party's Nazrul, the ruling party leader said Nazrul may be lagging behind in attracting voters and thus trying to hide behind "unfounded complaints".