by Shohel Mamun in Dhaka Tribune, June 28, 2018
Gazipur: Awami League mayoral candidate Jahangir Alam won the election with more than twice the votes his rival got.Despite BNP’s allegation that the Awami League rigged the Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) election, Gazipur citizens felt the election was held peacefully as there was no major incidents violence on election day.
Awami League mayoral candidate Jahangir Alam won the election with more than twice the votes his rival got. There were several factors contributing to his victory. Here are the three major ones.
A bad five years
BNP’s Abdul Mannan, who was mayor of Gazipur for the last five years, failed to undertake any development work in the city corporation area, as he was in jail most of the time.
Citizens of Gazipur were unhappy, having suffered from poor road conditions, traffic jams and water logging.
As far as voter sentiment went, the ruling party candidate was an inevitable choice this time. The reason being that with Awami League in power, its own candidate can easily get development work done.
During his election campaign, Jahangir Alam promised voters that he has had development plans for Gazipur city for a long time, and if he wins, he will complete the dream projects to build a planned, modern and developed city.
Popularity among young people
Young voters from Gazipur played an important role in putting Jahangir in the mayor’s office.
Being an icon to Gazipur youths, he has for the last five years, been the main organizer and benefactor of the charity ‘Jahangir Foundation,’ – an organization that works for young people in the district.
The foundation provides education scholarships and stipends for local youth and poor children.
To coordinate the work of the foundation, Jahangir formed committees in each and every ward in the city. During the election, these committees played a vital role by volunteering in the campaign for Jahangir.
Party unity
To ensure victory in Gazipur, Awami League’s biggest challenge was to resolve the internal conflicts among local party leaders.
Awami League central command worked at length to resolve the conflicts. Before the Gazipur city election, central leaders sat with Gazipur Awami League leaders and urged them to put aside their differences. Awami League central election coordination team ordered local leaders to campaign for the boat symbol.
Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader met with Gazipur district and city leaders at a restaurant in Dhaka’a Uttara and ordered them to work for the nominated candidate.
Before the election day, local Awami League leaders met at Gazipur 2 constituency lawmaker Zahid Ahsan Russel’s residence and all leaders present at the meeting promised to work for Jahangir.
Gazipur has politically been a stronghold for Awami League. In every national election since 1996, Awami League’s candidates in Gazipur did very well and won in most of the constituencies.
Party insiders say BNP candidate’s win in the previous city corporation election was owing to infighting in Awami League, which diverted a lot of votes.
Iqbal Hossain Sabuj, general secretary of the Awami League Gazipur unit, told the Dhaka Tribune this time all Awami League supporters had cast their votes for the boat symbol.
The new mayor of GCC Jahangir Alam told the Dhaka Tribune on yesterday morning that he had the support of all leaders and activists of Awami League as well as from the local civil society. https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/election/2018/06/28/three-things-that-contributed-to-jahangir-s-win
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