AL challenger Rifat beats stalwart Sakku for Cumilla mayor in a tight race

In a see-saw battle for Cumilla mayor, the Awami League's Arfanul Haque Rifat has emerged the winner, pipping the incumbent and BNP rebel Monirul Haque Sakku by just 343 votes - the narrowest of margins deciding the outcome in the city's history.

Senior Correspondentand Cumilla Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 15 June 2022, 01:58 PM
Updated : 15 June 2022, 08:36 PM

The ruling party challenger finished with 50,310 votes while expelled BNP leader Monirul Haque Sakku, who had beaten the Awami League candidates in the last two polls by huge margins, tallied 49,967 ballots.

Nizam Uddin Kaiser, another expelled BNP leader, polled 29,099 votes, according to the results published by Returning Officer Shahedunnabi Chowdhury from the district’s Shilpakala Academy on Wednesday evening after the daylong ballot ended without any major incident.

The voting was held through electronic machines, but the results were delayed as rains stopped some presiding officers from travelling and reporting to the returning officer, Shahedunnabi said.

Sakku alleged 'election engineering' as chaos disrupted the announcement of results.

Rifat said the results mean people have rejected Sakku for the “decade-long corruption”.

Tension mounted just before Rifat was declared the winner. Sakku arrived in the control room around 9pm, with hundreds of supporters of the ruling party candidate shouting: “boat, boat”, the electoral symbol of the Awami League.

Police later intervened in a bid to clear the supporters from the building. The returning officer stopped the announcement of results for some time as police charged batons to disperse the party adherents.

Five candidates threw their hats in the ring for mayor while 106 ran the race for councillor posts and 36 vied for reserved posts in the election.

Sakku joined the race this year as an independent candidate after his expulsion from the opposition BNP, which has shunned all elections overseen by the Sheikh Hasina administration. Kaiser also stood as an independent candidate after his expulsion from the BNP.

Both of them complained about “difficulties” with e-voting on the machines.

"We’ve found no disruptions or irregularities during the election. No allegation of obstruction to voter turning up was reported to us. The polls have proven that people's interest in casting ballots has increased," said Mohammad Abed Ali, chairman of the Election Monitoring Forum.

Abed said pre-election campaigns were not enough to introduce the EVM method to general voters.

Many of them had to try a couple of times or more before being able to cast their ballots through EVMs.

The Election Commission is pleased with the voting in Cumilla monitored through CCTV cameras, and the 58.74 percent turnout in the city of nearly 230,000 voters.

SAKKU’S ALLEGATION

Rifat and Sakku have been neck and neck since the beginning of the announcement of results. When the chaos disrupted the announcement, Sakku said he would not leave without knowing about the final outcome. “I’d rather be dead,” he said.

“We’ve only four centres left. Why aren’t they announcing the final results?” asked Sakku.

He was leading Rifat by 629 votes in 101 out of 105 polling stations at that time.

Asked if he feared votes had been rigged, Sakku said, “It’s possible. If not, why are they doing this?”

As Rifat was declared winner immediately after the announcement resumed, Sakku said in his immediate reaction: “The returning officer declared the ‘boat’ candidate the winner through election engineering. They inflicted the loss on me.”

He claimed that he had tallied results from all the centres and found out he had won by 980 votes. “That's why I came to the Shilpakala Academy.”

The former mayor questioned the returning officer’s action, alleging Shahedunnabi talked to someone on the phone after stopping the announcement.

Sakku said he would decide on the next course of action after consulting his lawyer.

RIFAT TO REVEAL ‘SAKKU’S CORRUPTION’

Rifat was not in the control room when the final results were announced. He said to journalists at his home that his first job in the public office will be to unearth the corruption that took place in the city corporation in the past decade.

He, however, added he would welcome Sakku if the former mayor wanted to work with him.

Rifat said waterlogging and traffic jams are the biggest problems facing the city and he would put an end to the suffering of the residents within a year.

“I'm an Awami League man, but I won’t turn the Nagar Bhaban into my party office. I'll work for people from all camps.”

Sakku was chairman of the municipality before Cumilla was elevated to a city corporation. Rifat’s win has now established the Awami League’s dominance in the city corporation ahead of the parliamentary election.

“We needed this victory. I'm grateful to the people for the way they’ve valued me,” Rifat said.

THE BAHAR FACTOR

MP AKM Bahauddin Bahar breached the electoral code of conduct by campaigning for party aspirant Rifat and was subsequently ordered by the Election Commission to leave the constituency.

He triggered a debate by staying in the city in defiance of the EC order.

After casting his vote, he questioned the commission’s authority to order him away.

The commission issued the letter ‘beyond its legal authority’ and it ‘hampers my constitutional rights’, the Cumilla MP said.

Awami League mayoral candidate Arfanul Haque Rifat flashes the victory sign after casting his ballot at the Cumilla Victoria Government College centre during the city corporation polls on Wednesday, Jun 15, 2022. Photo: Mahmud Zaman Ovi

He said he would raise the issue in parliament and demand an amendment to related law.

“Also, the wording of the letter wasn’t appropriate. They can’t use the word ‘order’ in the case of an MP. The letter is incomplete and doesn’t contain a full explanation of the law.”

Bahar moved the High Court after the EC asked him to explain his actions. The High Court issued a set of rules on the EC’s previous notice following Bahar’s plea.

The Election Commission drew criticism for its failure to control Bahar’s activities, and also for trying to do it. Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal had earlier said they cannot compel Bahar to leave.

On the voting day, the CEC declined to comment on the issue. “This issue is a thing of the past and closed.”

After the results, Bahar said Sakku’s “corruption” led to his downfall. “I believe Rifat won’t harbour corruption.”

Both Rifat and Sakku are known to many as followers of Bahar. Many believe Sakku rode on Bahar’s backing to win the last two elections.

Sakku refuted the allegation of corruption during the campaign, arguing that a BNP leader would not have survived as mayor had they been involved in graft with the Awami League in government.

DIVISION IN BNP?

In the first polls in 2012 after Cumilla became a city corporation, Sakku got 65,577 votes, while his nearest rival Awami League veteran Afzal Khan bagged 36,471 votes.

Sakku had been suspended by the BNP for contesting in that election.

In the following election in 2017, Sakku bagged 68,948 votes as the BNP’s candidate while his nearest rival, Afzal’s daughter Anjum Sultana Sima polled 57,863 votes with the Awami League’s ticket.

This time Sakku got 49,967 votes and conceded by 343 after he reportedly lost the support of Bahar, and Kaiser.

Conversations with some BNP supporters revealed they voted for Kaiser, who drew 29,099 ballots.

Had Kaiser withdrawn his candidacy and supported Sakku, analysts believe the former mayor would have been re-elected with a huge margin again.

Kaiser had earlier refuted the allegation that he was in the race only to bring Sakku down.

“Sakku didn’t have much support from the BNP in public,” said Shah Mohammad Alamgir Khan, president of the Cumilla district chapter of citizens’ group Sushasoner Jonno Nagorik.

"Even if he had the covert support of another party [Awami League], it would be difficult to change the fate of the election."

Researcher and columnist Ahsanul Kabir also believes the Kaiser factor caused Sakku’s election loss.

“Sakku fought like a one-man army. He lost by a slim margin. Kaiser has been a thorn in Sakku’s side. Kaiser’s [electoral symbol] horse has gobbled up Sakku’s [symbol] clock.”