As in the past few parliamentary elections, the interest of voters in local government elections is also decreasing. Analyzing the results of the two phases of the ongoing Sixth Upazila Parishad, that picture has emerged. In the ongoing local government upazila elections, the first phase of voting was 36.1 percent. And in the second phase, 37.57 percent of votes were cast.
Although the Election Commission (EC) is not satisfied with the voter turnout, they say that it is not their responsibility to bring voters to the centre. Their job is to conduct elections. Several EC commissioners say that there are no restrictions or rules in national or local government elections, what percentage of votes will be accepted. The EC does not even think about them. They are happy with any percentage of votes.
Election experts say that the decline in voter turnout in local government elections like the Jatiyo Sangsad(JS) is alarming. The way the voter turnout is decreasing day by day, it means that people are losing confidence in elections and election system. As the election system of the country has gone to a one-party system, the general public is losing confidence in voting.
Meanwhile, as the voter turnout in the elections is decreasing, the number of unopposed candidates winning in contested local government elections is also increasing. In the first phase of this year's upazila elections, 26 candidates won unopposed. In the second phase, 22 candidates won unopposed.
According to EC sources, before the election, the Election Commission held an exchange meeting in different districts. Meanwhile, several upazila candidates told the commissioners to take initiative to bring the voters to the center. Along with this, it has been asked to take initiatives to ensure that ordinary voters go to the center even if necessary.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal told the media yesterday after the second phase of voting, "I never consider 30 percent voting to be encouraging." One of the major reasons for the low voter turnout could be the country's major political parties boycotting the elections through public announcements. They discouraged people from voting. In a democratic country there can be opposition, the crisis is in politics. If the political crisis is overcome and the politics flows in a healthy stream, the voters will be encouraged to come to the polling station.
In the Fifth upazila election of 2019, several parties including BNP, the main opposition party in the political arena, boycotted the election. The vote was 40.22 percent. In continuation of this, important parties including BNP, Jamaat, Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) and Islamic movement have boycotted the vote. Campaigns and leaflets were also distributed to prevent common people from going to polling stations. Before this, in the Fourth upazila parishad election of 2014, the voter turnout was 61 percent. At that time the main opposition BNP participated in the elections.
Sharmin Murshid, Executive Director of the election monitoring organization Brati, told Barta24.com that a democratic election system has not been established in the 53 years of independence. Also, the common voters have lost faith in those who conduct the elections and those who are in charge of law and order. As a result, many people are disappointed and have lost confidence in voting.