The New Nation - Internet Edition

Peaceful elections held in four city corporations and nine municipalities on Monday under the present state of emergency, with candidates belonging to the Bangladesh Awami League sweeping those, has been termed by Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda as the test case from which the election commission can learn to hold the national elections.

Voting was peaceful and the atmosphere cordial in all the 13 cities and towns. Only in Barisal the defeated candidate Sharfuddin Santu of PDP has complained of result manipulation, a tone sounded by the winner Shawkat Hossain Hiron earlier when he was trailing behind at one stage of vote counting.

In Bogra, out of the nine municipalities, Jahangir Alam, a candidate known for his affiliation with the BNP was elected chairman. The posts of chairmen in eight other municipalities went to AL candidates.

The Awami League and its allies in the 14-party Alliance officially took part in the election while the BNP and its 4-party Alliance boycotted the same. AL chief Sheikh Hasina has termed the results victory of the people who, she observed, voted in recognition of AL's services rendered during its 5-year rule from 1996 to 2001.

Khondker Delwar Hossain, secretary general of the BNP, on the other hand, has questioned the credibility of the election which he has termed a blueprint. BNP did neither take part in it nor did nominate any candidate, he said.

The election, originally designed by the election commission to be held on a non-party basis, finally was contested on party lines following a verdict coming from the High Court.

An important highlight of the election was the win by AL candidate Badruddin Ahmed Kamran of Sylhet from jail who has been indicted in corruption cases, on which he was chargesheeted several days before the polling, with a huge margin of more than 80,000 votes.

Local bodies elections generate a lot of enthusiasm and Monday's elections were no exception. People turned up in large numbers and, according to initial assessments, 80 percent voters cast their votes.

There was no doubt, some confusion over the national identity cards and the serial number of voters. A large number of voters did not know that the ID cards were not meant for use for identification for voting. An election commissioner claimed that they made elaborate publicity on this. The confusion was due to the media, he claimed. It, however, appeared that not even the presiding officers and polling officers were aware of the fact that the national ID cards were of no use, and that the photo voter lists carried different serial numbers for voters.

After the elections there was no victory procession anywhere as the Emergency Power Rules do not provide for such group activity. Doubts had earlier been expressed by local and foreign observers as to whether there could be successful elections under restrictions imposed through Emergency Power Rules.

Without delving into any controversy it can be said without any doubt that there is only one way out of the present state of emergency, and that is election at all levels. The emergency has come due to lack of foresight and mismanagement by politicians. They should take the responsibility of steering the nation clear of the present situation through the democratic path - elections.