Bangladesh’s ruling party wins landslide victory in maiden partisan local polls

DHAKA, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Bangladesh Awami League party, which came into power since 2009, won Wednesday’s maiden partisan local body polls by a landslide, election results showed on Thursday.
According to the results declared in the 226 municipalities, the party showed its mettle that it firmly had the populace, winning 176 mayoral posts with its “boat” symbol in the country’s first-ever polls on party lines to a local government body.
On the other hand, former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) got 22 posts with its “paddy sheaves” symbol while non-party independent candidates and others won in 28 municipalizes.
The Election Commission has suspended election in one municipality amid reports of irregularities and violence and halted collecting results of seven others after the cancellation of voting in a number of centers.
In a post-election press conference, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed claimed that the elections were held in a peaceful manner except some stray incidents which left one dead and scores of others injured.
Some 20 parties including BNP, which sat out the 2014 national polls, have joined the elections.
The ruling Bangladesh Awami League party claimed that the voting was free and fair, but BNP claimed widespread rigging.
The elections were a prestige fight for the two parties ahead of the national polls slated for 2019.
Some 12,000 candidates fought for the posts of 234 mayors, 2,193 general councillors and 731 reserved councillors.
Experts said Wednesday’s polls reflected the political power of the two major parties, though not on a broad canvas, which alternately ruled Bangladesh since 1991.  Enditem