Selection of single candidates may spark infighting

Selection of single mayor aspirants by the grassroots of Awami League has sparked protests in several municipalities, raising fear that the candidates might face intra-party rebels in the upcoming polls.

The protest by local AL leaders and activists might intensify as the AL nomination board late last night finalised party candidates for 235 municipalities. The organising secretaries of the party started to distribute party nomination letters among the candidates and their representatives from the AL president's Dhanmondi office.

Sources said the grassroots of most municipalities did not pick their mayor candidate fearing it would trigger internal feud. Rather, the grassroots left it to party chief Sheikh Hasina to decide.

Party insiders said the AL president's Dhanmondi office got names of 3 to 4 mayor aspirants from each of almost half municipalities going to polls on December 30.

AL grassroots of Rajshahi could send names of one mayor candidate each in two municipalities of the 13 there. Jessore district units sent names of all AL mayor aspirants to party president's office to avoid conflict.

"Awami League is a large organisation with several eligible candidates and they all want nomination ... We decided to send all aspirants' names and our leader Sheikh Hasina will make the final decision as we don't want any feud within us," Shahin Chaklader, general secretary of Jessore district AL, told The Daily Star.

In many cases, AL nomination board for municipality elections, with 18 top leaders in it, ignored the single candidate the grassroots had picked.

In Kushtia Sadar, the local unit proposed Haji Rabiul but Anwar Ali got the party ticket, sources said.  

The nomination board at its meeting, chaired by Hasina, Monday night at the Gono Bhaban sorted the lists division-wise and finalised candidates for most of the municipalities.

From last night, AL started sending letters to municipality units mentioning the candidate chosen by Hasina.

Hasina would send another letter later on asking party men to give all-out support to party-nominated candidates and reiterating the tough action that would be taken against rebel candidates.

Sources said the nomination board selected candidates considering their popularity and devotion. Grassroots' choices, intelligence reports, and several surveys also played a role.

In many cases, ministers and MPs influenced grassroots to choose their relatives and candidates loyal to them, ignoring veterans and dedicated party activists, party sources said.

Hasina in Monday's meeting identified a few such cases and rebuked an AL advisory council member and a joint secretary, meeting sources said. She also identified that all AL mayor aspirants in a district were relatives of an advisory council member.

Hasina also discovered that an AL joint secretary had influenced the grassroots to choose a mayor aspirant loyal to him. She dropped the name in favour of someone else.

She told the joint secretary that he has to promote everyone involved in the AL, not just the ones loyal to the joint secretary.

However, mayoral aspirants in many municipalities were firm on running in the polls even though they did not get party tickets.

Hasan Morshed Shanto, president of Khoksha upazila unit Jubo League of Kushtia, said he would run even if he was expelled from the party.

The Daily Star found that there were two AL mayor aspirants in 39 municipalities, three in 57 municipalities, five in 15 and more than five in 20 municipalities.

In many municipalities, aspirants failing to get party tickets staged demonstrations and accused local leaders of nepotism and bias.

Leaders and activists of Jaldhaka of Nilphamari on Monday blocked Domer-Dimla Road, accusing local leaders of ignoring dedicated party men.

Supporters of mayor aspirants, who got the grassroots' nod and those who did not, locked in clashes at Ramganj of Lakshmipur, Kachua of Chandpur, Dhunat of Bogra and Chatkhil of Noakhali.

Four mayoral aspirants of Kalapara municipality under Patuakhali accused local MP Mahabubur Rahman Talukder of influencing Awami Leaguers there to support incumbent mayor Rakibul Ahsan. The four at a press conference on Monday demanded Hasina's interference.