With general election months away, voter apathy stings EC ‘pleased’ with city polls

Although the city corporation elections have been largely peaceful, low turnouts have laid bare one of the biggest challenges facing the Election Commission in the next general election

Largely peaceful balloting in five city corporations has left the Election Commission happy, but low turnouts have laid bare one of the biggest challenges facing it in the next general election: voter apathy.

Amid a boycott by the BNP, and later by the Islami Andolan Bangladesh, the turnouts in the city polls have been around 50 percent on an average, which is “good enough” for the elections to the local government body, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal said.

Satisfied with the voting, he admitted it would have been “excellent” had the turnout edged somewhere between 60 percent and 70 percent.

Election analyst Abdul Alim said the standard turnout for an acceptable election is 70-80 percent.

“The city corporation elections have been comforting, compared to the past polls. There was no violence or irregularities. But there was one cause of discomfort: not all the parties participated in the polls.”

“All parties must come if we want to call it a legitimate election.”

In the elections held in Rajshahi on Wednesday, the turnout fell to 56.2 percent from 81.61 percent in 2008. In Sylhet, the turnout decreased from 75 percent to 46.71 percent.

The rate of a fall in turnout was similar in Gazipur, Barishal and Khulna city corporations.

The ruling Awami League won the mayoral elections to four city corporations while in Gazipur, the mother of its expelled leader came out victorious.

The BNP has so far been adamant on not contesting in any elections with the Awami League in power. It has been conducting a movement to install a neutral caretaker administration by toppling the Awami League government.

The Islami Andolan fielded its candidates for the mayors’ posts and got a significant number of votes, but an attack on its candidate in Barishal led it to boycott the elections to Sylhet and Rajshahi.

“We can still hope that all the parties will contest in the general election although they have boycotted the city polls,” analyst Alim said.

“It’s not the EC’s job to bring the parties to elections, but everyone wants to see all the parties in the polls. This is the biggest challenge for the general election now.”

The challenge for the EC will be to prevent irregularities in the general election, where officials from the local administrations will work as election officers, while the commission sent its own officials for city polls, Alim pointed out.

“In that case, the environment of the parliamentary polls may be different. The EC will have to accept this challenge.”

Alim said holding votes in ballot papers will be another challenge for the current EC, which conducted the recent elections with electronic voting machines.

CEC Awal, however, believes their performance in the city corporation polls will help remove voter apathy.

“We feel satisfied. No unwanted incidents occurred in the city corporation elections. We didn’t receive reports of voters being barred.”

“We believe these elections will encourage the voters to turn out in the parliamentary polls enthusiastically,” he said.