Narayanganj City Polls: Names of polling agents kept secret in fear

The two main contenders in the Narayanganj city mayoral election are maintaining “strategic secrecy” over appointment of their polling agents.

While the ruling Awami League nominee Selina Hayat Ivy is apprehensive of intra-party sabotage, her arch-rival Shakhawat Hossain Khan of BNP fears that his agents might be intimidated or arrested if their names were disclosed ahead of the December 22 polls.

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A candidate appoints a polling agent to monitor voting and counting of votes in a polling booth.

Ivy's camp reckons that her potential polling agents might be motivated by “certain quarters” within the AL as they have not taken her candidacy gracefully.

Campaigners for Shakhawat, on the other hand, have a feeling that his polling agents would be in trouble if their names were declared ahead of the polling day.

Nuruzzaman Talukdar, returning officer of Narayanganj city polls, said candidates were yet to submit their poling agents' names to the Election Commission which could be done in the morning of the polling day at the latest.

Although the pre-election atmosphere in the city has so far been conducive to a free and fair election, there is a sense of insecurity amongst the potential polling agents of Shakhawat whether they would be able to carry out their duties effectively, said sources in BNP.

“There is no legal binding on the candidates to appoint party men as poling agents. We are looking for dutiful and trustworthy people for polling agents,” cultural personality Rafiur Rabbi told The Daily Star yesterday.

Rabbi, who is close to Ivy, said they were picking polling agents secretly to make sure that no “godfather” can sabotage the election.

Although the AL high-ups already made sure that Ivy has the backing of local lawmaker Shamim Osman, her supporters was suspicious about what was up Shamim's sleeve.

“Our main contender is not Shakhawat, but the godfather of Narayanganj. We are careful because party men loyal to the godfather can work against us,” Rabbi added.

He said Ivy in the 2011 city corporation polls did not appoint polling agents to all polling booths, but those of many ward councillor aspirants worked for her.

Some BNP leaders said they were forming polling centre-based committees with leaders of local Chhatra Dal, Jubo Dal and Sramik Dal units to keep watch over polling stations to ensure that election results were not rigged.

“During the last polls to Dhaka city corporations, we saw that polling agents were either arrested or threatened just before the polling day. We are careful this time after having learnt from that experience,” said central BNP leader Abdus Salam, also the coordinator of Shakhawat's polling agents.

Returning Officer Nuruzzaman said some candidates informed them about not submitting the list of polling agents before the polling day.

“There is no legal binding on candidates to submit the poling agents' names earlier. We have asked the contenders to send the names to the presiding officer concerned at 6:00am on the polling day,” he added.

Around five lakh voters are expected to exercise their franchise on Thursday to elect the new city mayor and councillors. A total of 1,304 polling booths will be set up in 174 polling stations in the city's 27 wards.