Can Khaleda become game changer?
Khaleda Zia is in the spotlight now! It largely depends on her whether or not the upcoming elections to three city corporations will be participatory and competitive. Whether her archrival Sheikh Hasina's Awami League will get a walkover in the city polls also depends on her.
If Khaleda decides to let her party men join the battle of ballots, it will offer the people of Dhaka an opportunity to choose their representatives in a festive mood after more than 20 years as they had last done in 1994.
This will also bring back memories of those times when Khaleda and Hasina, then premier and opposition leader respectively, had engaged in hectic electioneering for their party-backed mayoral candidates in the polls to four city corporations, including the one in the capital.
In that prestigious battle, AL-backed candidates had won the mayoral posts in Dhaka and Chittagong while BNP favourites won in Rajshahi and Khulna city corporations.
However, it's also possible that voters in the capital will find it very difficult to remember those days in 1994 when they had last exercised their democratic rights to elect a mayor.
People who have obtained voting rights after 1994 do not have any memory of such a city election. This is because the DCC has become the victim of partisan politics and its elections could not be held on time.
The second DCC election was held in early 2002 when the BNP-led alliance was in power. But the then main opposition AL had not allowed its leaders to contest the polls, letting BNP men get elected almost uncontested. In that election, voters were not required to exercise their rights to elect the city mayor.
The tenure of the corporation formed in the 2002 polls expired in the middle of 2007. But no election was held for various reasons. Finally, the DCC was split into two at the end of 2011. Since then both the corporations have been run by administrators. People did not have any say in the process.
Against this backdrop, the elections to the two city corporations in Dhaka along with the one in Chittagong on April 28 come with immense political significance.
This time the situation is, however, different than what it had been in 1994 during the maiden DCC election.
Back then, both Hasina and Khaleda were able to join the battle seeking support for their party-backed mayoral candidates.
This time, however, electoral laws prevent Hasina and senior leaders of her party holding ministerial posts or office of profit from electioneering for their party-blessed mayoral aspirants.
The Jatiya Party, the main opposition in parliament, has endorsed its candidates in the three city polls. But neither JP Chairman Ershad nor Opposition Leader Raushan Ershad will be able to campaign for their party-backed candidates in the mayoral race. It is because both Ershad and Raushan are holding office of profit.
The battleground of ballot, however, welcomes Khaleda. She and all her party men and also her party-led alliance leaders are free to campaign for their candidates. They will not face any legal restriction to step openly in the battlefield of ballots to drum up people's support for mayoral aspirants backed by the BNP-led alliance.
The BNP-led alliance will face no hurdle for around three weeks during electioneering to bring out processions and rallies in the capital and Chittagong. Khaleda and none of her party-led alliance leaders hold any office of profit in parliament as they boycotted the January 5 parliamentary election. Thus the city polls offer the BNP ample opportunity to reorganise the party.
Once Khaleda will ask her party men to join the city polls, mercury in the political landscape will keep rising. Various issues of national importance are likely to dominate the electoral campaigns. The outcome of the battle of ballots will determine largely the popularity of both the sides.
The 1994 polls in the DCC were a struggle for the existence of the then main opposition AL. For the BNP it was a fight for consolidation of power and self-assertion. This time, however, the outcome of the battle will just be the opposite.
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