by Dwoha Chowdhury in The Daily Star, June 19, 2023
As the campaigning for Sylhet City Corporation polls will conclude tonight at 12:00am, the mayor and councillor candidates are passing a busy time.
With an eye to reach as many voters as possible, mayor candidates are attending more street rallies while the councillor ones are trying to knock on every door.
Of the mayoral candidates, the contest between Anwaruzzaman Chowdhury from Awami League and Nazrul Islam Babul from Jatiya Party is intense.
Anwaruzzaman on Saturday unveiled a 21-point election manifesto for a green, clean and smart city. Yesterday, Nazrul did the same with a 21-point manifesto, promising a planned modern city.
At their rallies, both the candidates are now focusing on the promises they made in the respective manifestos.
While the AL candidate is more focused on campaigning, the JP candidate kept on alleging that the ruling party candidate trying to make the polling environment unstable.
He filed a written complaint to the returning officer in this regard and demanded that the hostels of Murari Chand College and Sylhet Government College be closed during the polling time.
The AL candidate’s campaign is getting more intense as party leaders and activists from across the country are thronging there.
A delegation of Sunamganj district AL, led by the unit’s president and general secretary, was seen campaigning in the city yesterday.
AL’s central leaders — including presidium member Syed Jebunnessa Haque, joint secretary Jahangir Kabir Nanak, organising secretary Ahmed Hossain and Shafiul Alam Chowdhury Nadel — are also seen seeking vote for Anwaruzzaman.
Leaders of AL-affiliated organisations — including Jubo League, Chhatra League, Swechchhasebak League — are also campaigning in the city.
Moreover, expatriate leaders of the ruling party are also travelling to Sylhet to campaign for Anwaruzzaman, who is also an expatriate and joint secretary of the party’s UK chapter.
Meanwhile, the JP candidate is mostly seen with local leaders while notable central leaders are absent in his electoral campaign.
Other independent mayoral candidates are campaigning mostly in the areas where they are known to the locals.
PROJECTION SHOWS BIG WIN FOR AL CANDIDATE
An estimate shows that the AL candidate Anwaruzzaman will win with a difference of around 1 lakh votes from his closest contesting JP candidate.
The vote projection was conducted for the first time in Bangladesh by Social Engineering and Election Maneuvering Architecture, a sister concern of the Europe-based research institute Wise GOV.
The estimate was made following a 52-day field survey since April 2023. The projection considered the voter diversity like supporters of political parties, religious sects, minorities, settlers, neutrals etc.
The projection shows that around 44-51 percent of voters will cast their votes and the AL candidate will get 1,35,250 (+-10 percent) votes.
It also shows that the JP candidate will get 25,000-33,000 votes while other candidates will get between 3,500 and 11,000 votes.
132 CENTRES OUT OF 190 ‘IMPORTANT’
Sylhet Metropolitan Police (SMP) marked 132 centres out of the total 190 centres as “important”.
SMP is planning to deploy additional force to these centres to avoid any unwanted circumstances.
Out of 42 wards, all centres at 18 wards are marked “important” and all centres of only one ward is marked “normal”.
Sudip Das, additional deputy commissioner (media) of SMP, said, “Many things are considered to mark the centres ‘important’ and the key factors are a natural calamity, remote placement, no boundary wall, and the conflicting situation among candidates.”
Moreover, more force will be deployed with the judicial and executive magistrates on duty, he added.
POLLS ON JUNE 21
A total of 4,86,605 voters are expected to cast their votes via electronic voting machine (EVM).
There will be a total of 1,364 polling booths at 190 centres in 42 wards.
Eight mayoral candidates, 273 general councillor candidates for 42 wards and 87 reserved councillor candidates for 14 reserved wards are contesting the city polls. https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/al-full-throttle-jp-struggling-3349976
