Ministers attend Awami League ‘election’ meeting in Chittagong

A minister and two state ministers joined a meeting of Chittagong Awami League and its allies, apparently violating an Election Commission rule banning ministerial involvement in local government poll campaigns.

Housing and Public Works Minister and Awami League Presidium Member Engineer Mosharraf Hossain, State Minister for CHT Affairs Bir Bahadur Ushwe Sing and State Minister for Land Saifuzzaman Chowdhury attended the meeting held at Hotel Peninsula on Tuesday.

The trio are also MPs from the Chittagong Division.

Some of the organisers insisted the meeting dealt with party matters and not the city polls, but Chowdhury said, “We sat as a party over the election. We talked about poll strategy. We had a number of people with prior poll experience which they shared.”

MA Latif, Awami League MP, said, “We sat for candidate AJM Nasir [Uddin]. Since the leader [Sheikh Hasina] has decided, our task is to implement it. Party leaders will go from door to door.”

Moinuddin Khan Badal, leader of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSaD), a key Awami League ally, said, “This was an advisory meeting of the 14-party alliance. Today, we officially extended our backing to AJM Nasir Uddin. We will work to get him elected.”

However, the local government electoral code of conduct prohibits ministers and junior ministers from taking part in electoral campaigns or poll-related activities within a polling area ahead of the vote.

The guideline also places a similar ban on government officials.

When asked, Badal denied having any knowledge of ministers attending the meeting. “Members of parliament from Chittagong attended. I do not know if there were any ministers.”

State minister Bir Bahadur declined comment.

Chittagong Awami League Advisory Council member Ishaq Mia, who heads Nasir’s campaign committee, claimed, “We met to discuss party matters.”

Sitakunda MP Didarul Alam said, “Engineer Mosharraf Hossain did not invite us after becoming minister. He invited us today for the first time. We have come at his invitation.”

Chittagong Metropolitan Public Prosecutor Fakhruddin Chowdhury, member secretary of the campaign committee ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, and top leaders of the port city Awami League also attended the two-hour closed-door meeting.

Mosharraf Hossain had earlier joined a Mar 24 meeting along with AJM Nasir.

BNP central leader Abdullah Al Noman alleged the move had violated the poll code and the returning officer issued a show-cause notice to the mayor aspirant.