Awami League suffers shock defeat in vote

Bangladesh’s ruling Awami League party suffered an unexpected blow on Friday when an opposition candidate won a crucial mayoral election in the port city of Chittagong.

Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) candidate M Manzur Alam beat the incumbent ruling party candidate - who has been mayor for 17 years - by 95,528 votes, Chittagong election commission official Shafiqur Rahman said.

“People responded to our promise of change in Chittagong,” Alam told reporters after the initial results were announced.

The BNP, which is currently boycotting parliament and has called a protest strike on June 27 to try to bring down the government, said their Chittagong victory signaled widespread discontent with the AL’s “misrule”.

“The AL have failed to resolve the power crisis or spiralling inflation on essential goods and the people have seen this,” BNP secretary general Khandakar Delwar told reporters.

The result marks the first loss of a key position for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League 18 months after it won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections that ended two years of military rule.

“This defeat is a signal for the government, we accept the result, we realise that the people have spoken and we will help the new mayor as best we can,” said Obaidul Kader, a senior AL leader.

Local observers said the election was largely peaceful with no major allegations of vote rigging although a minor scuffle erupted on Thursday night between the opposing candidates’ supporters, leaving some injured. Bangladeshi politics has long been dominated by Sheikh Hasina and BNP chief Khaleda Zia, who have maintained a debilitating rivalry for decades.

Published in The Express Tribune, 19^th, 2010.