Campaign, informally
Mosques and garment factories became the unofficial campaign centres of mayoral candidates of Gazipur City Corporation elections yesterday even though electioneering for today's polls officially ended midnight Thursday.
The ruling Awami League-backed mayoral candidate Ajmat Ullah Khan and opposition BNP-blessed mayoral aspirant MA Mannan yesterday took the opportunity of Juma prayers to seek votes.
According to sources, officials of garment factories owned by pro-BNP and pro-Awami League businessmen in Gazipur asked their employees to vote for the candidate they were backing.
Even though Friday was the weekend for garment workers, owners kept their garment factories open yesterday supposedly to persuade their workers to vote for their candidates.
“I have asked my workers to vote for the Awami League-backed candidate,” a garment factory owner who is also a leader of Awami League's youth wing Jubo League told The Daily Star.
A pro-BNP garment factory owner said he too asked their workers to vote for the BNP-backed candidate.
The two garment factory owners said there were 200-250 factories in Gazipur which are owned by pro-ruling party and pro-opposition men.
Factory owners, workers and intelligence agencies sources claimed that a large amount of money had been distributed yesterday and on Thursday night among workers and staffs of factories to buy votes.
Returning Officer Matiar Rahman, however, said they had not received any formal complaints in this regard.
The votes of the garment workers are a big deal in this election. Of the 10 lakh or so voters, 3.5 lakh are garment workers and many believe they would be the deciding factor in today's polls.
Yesterday, Ajmat and Mannan offered their Juma prayers at mosques in Tongi and sought votes and blessings from the devotees.
A number of Hefajat-e Islam and Jamaat-Shibir men were seen seeking votes and support for Mannan at different mosques.
Campaign for Mannan via texting was also going on.
Awami League men and a small number of people of different religion-based organisations asked people to vote for Ajmat at different mosques.
Ajmat offered Juma prayers at Tongi Municipal Jame Masjid with a good number of his followers. Mannan offered his prayers at Tongi Bazar Jame Masjid.
Mannan yesterday went to Tongi, 25km from his Salna home, as Tongi is considered to be Ajmat's stronghold.
Both the leaders spent some time in the mosques and exchanged greetings with the devotees.
Meanwhile, during a press conference at his Tongi electoral camp after Juma prayers, Mannan alleged that Ajmat was trying to influence the poll using ruling party lawmakers and leaders.
Supporters of Ajmat were spreading black money, alleged Mannan and warned that people of Gazipur would not accept the result, if it went against him.
He said the election environment was congenial until Thursday night.
“Today's environment is not good. Ajmat Ullah Khan was present at the time of distribution of election materials at the National University,” Mannan said accusing Ajmat of buying votes.
Mannan talking to the press yesterday did not go down well with the returning officer.
Returning Officer Matiar Rahman during a press conference at the Gazipur Bangataj Auditorium said Mannan had violated the electoral code of conduct by holding a press conference on the day before the polls.
He, however, said they would take necessary actions after investigation.
Meanwhile, there was a three-kilometre-long traffic jam between Joydevpur intersection and Shivbari as several hundred vehicles carrying law enforcers, deployed for the election, were kept on the road haphazardly.
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