Shawdesh desk:

The ruling Awami League’s move to field party leaders as independent and dummy candidates to make the January 7 national election participatory has intensified the party’s internal conflicts, leaving at least 13 people killed and over 300 injured in two months since mid-November.

AL president and prime minister Sheikh Hasina took the move apparently to avoid the embarrassment of 2014 when 153 party candidates were elected unopposed following the boycott by major parties.

At least six people were killed in pre-election violence this time, two on the polling day, and five others after the election in clashes between the supporters of Awami League candidates and the party-backed independent candidates, according to police reports and New Age correspondents.

At the latest, Shaheduzzaman, 35, a polling agent for an independent candidate in the Noakhali-2 constituency, was killed at Sonaimuri upazila in Noakhali on Saturday night.

Three people, including two women, were injured, and several houses were vandalised in an attack allegedly carried out by the followers of an independent candidate for Munshiganj-3 under Sadar upazila on Sunday.

‘The Awami League took the move to place dummy candidates against the party candidates as a strategy against BNP. But it impacted the Awami League the most,’ Abul Kashem Fazlul Haq, a retired professor at Dhaka University and political analyst, said.

Dhaka University political science professor Shantanu Majumder said that the move to place independents against the party candidates reignited internal clashes, which would take a long time to go.

‘I think the clashes will come down in the coming days, but the conflicts among party activists will remain long,’ he said.

The conflict turned so intense that, in some cases, the party leaders turned against  each other even after the end of the election.

Independent candidate Abdul Kader Azad won the election from the Faridpur-3 constituency, defeating the party candidate and AL Faridpur district unit president Shamim Haque.

Azad, after the election, expressed his desire to work with Shamim, but the latter denied his proposal.

‘I am doing politics for our leader, Sheikh Hasina… I will not listen to anyone except Sheikh Hasina,’ Shamim told New Age.

The newly appointed minister for housing and public works affairs, RAM Obaidul Muktadir Chowdhury, filed a Tk 100 crore defamation case with the Brahmanbaria Joint District Judge Court on Thursday against his rival Awami League independent candidate Firozur Rahman Olio.

The two had contested from the Brahmanbaria-3 constituency and turned bitter rivals ever since electioneering began.

New Age correspondents from different districts reported that hundreds of AL leaders and activists had to leave their homes and families, and the houses of many of them were also vandalised in places across the country in the post-poll violence.

Former AL minister Abdul Latif Biswas, also an independent candidate, alleged on Sunday that 2,000 leaders and activists fled their homes and 100 were beaten before and after the election under the leadership of AL Sirajganj-5 incumbent lawmaker Abdul Momin Mondol.

Many defeated AL candidates also started raising allegations of irregularities in the January 7 election, and their supporters joined clashes in many areas, despite the call for calm by AL general secretary Obaidul Quader.

Major opposition political parties, including the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, boycotted the elections.

The AL candidate for Dhaka-4, Sanjida Khanam, alleged irregularities in 18 centres, filed complaints to the returning officer and election commissioner through different applicants and also filed a writ petition with the High Court on January 9.

‘I was not defeated in the election by the people’s vote. Independent candidate Awlad Hossain and his goons manipulated the election results with the help of some presiding officers,’ Sanjida told New Age.

AL candidate for Madaripur-3, Abdus Sobhan Mia, also the party’s publicity secretary, alleged that he was defeated through subtle manipulation by independent candidate Tahmina Begum.

Two days after the election, at a press conference, he told reporters that he was defeated through manipulation and conspiracy, especially in 12 out of 16 centres in Kalkini municipality.

Five-time lawmaker and AL candidate for Barguna-1, Dhirendranath Sambhu, filed a complaint to the returning officer on Tuesday, alleging irregularities in the constituency after he lost to independent Golam Sarwar Tuku.

At least 62 independent candidates, mostly Awami League leaders, emerged victorious in the election.

In Jhenaidah, sequel attacks, allegedly carried out by supporters of independent candidate Md Nasser Shahrear Zahedee in Jhenaidah-2 constituency on Monday and Tuesday on defeated AL candidate Tahjeeb Alam Siddique, left one killed, over a dozen injured, and 50 houses vandalised.

‘It is sad that people are being killed, beaten, and their houses vandalised for casting votes for boats. They should instead vandalise my house, sparing the poor people,’ Tahjeeb told New Age.

AL joint general secretary, AFM Bahauddin Nasim, however, termed the clashes isolated events.

‘Clashes during and after elections are normal in our country. But post-election clashes are lower compared to the past,’ Nasim told New Age.

M Haq Babu, a member of the AL central sub-committee on finance and planning, said that the attack on the followers of the AL candidate for Faridpur-4 and its presidium member Kazi Zafarullah, also the co-chairman of its election steering committee polls, continued by supporters of victorious independent candidate Mujibur Rahman Chowdhury, also known as Nixon Chowdhury.

‘The AL candidate was not defeated by the people’s vote in Faridpur 4. At least 30 agents of the boat were removed from polling centres in the constituency. As Zafrullah is the co-chairman of the election steering committee, he did not take any legal action,’ Babu said.

The Awami League formed the government for the fourth consecutive term after winning 223 seats in the election.