SHUJAN doubts recent municipal election's credibility

The recent municipality polls cannot be termed fair and impartial because they fell short of the standards of credible elections, civil society organisation SHUJAN said yesterday, based on its observation of the entire electoral process, including voting.

Shushashoner Jannoy Nagorik cited that an accurate electoral roll, freedom of all aspirants to contest, participation of multiple candidates, and an intimidation-less voting environment were indicators of a credible election.

"An analysis of the overall scenario suggests that the municipality polls did not meet the standards," SHUJAN Secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar told a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU), where information about the new mayors was presented.

Elections in 235 municipalities were held between December 30 and January 12.

In a statement, SHUJAN said the municipality polls were held with a "faulty and incomplete" voters' list, many aspirants were coerced into quitting the electoral race, and in many places voters were intimidated and vote counting was untrustworthy.

The overall turnout was 72.93 percent in the elections, while SHUJAN said in five municipalities it was 90 percent and in 74 municipalities it was over 80 percent.

Experienced election observers see such high turnouts as unbelievable, the statement said.

SHUJAN also said the quality of the electoral system had been deteriorating since the January 5 parliamentary election in 2014, and it went down further in the subsequent upazila polls in 2014 and city corporation votes in Dhaka and Chittagong last year. 

"The downtrend of quality continued into the recent municipality polls.... If the flaws are not corrected, the entire electoral system may collapse," it said.

The organisation also analysed the information of 233 new mayors on the basis of their affidavits. Information about two mayors was not available.

SHUJAN said 79.48 percent of mayors were businessmen, and it indicated that the participation of the rich and influence of money in elections were on the rise. Of the mayors, 22.74 percent are accused in cases and 40.77 percent are graduates, according to the statement.

SHUJAN President M Hafiz Uddin Khan said the government should have consulted other political parties and stakeholders before making local government polls partisan.