The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has set a precedent of establishing full democracy within the party by forming the Betgari union BNP committee in Gangachara upazila of Rangpur through secret ballots.
Local people expressed satisfaction over the incident that happened on Thursday and are hoping that this incident will be a precedent to bring a breath of fresh air towards overall democratisation in the country鈥檚 politics.
The triennial conference of Betgari union BNP was held at Betgari Bazar Brac Shishu Niketon School in the upazila. Convener of Gangachara upazila BNP Md Waheduzzaman Mabu was the chief guest at the conference.
The conference was inaugurated by upazila BNP member-secretary Ayub Ali and the main speaker was Rangpur district BNP member Anwar Shahadat.
At the conference, it was decided to form a committee of the Betgari union BNP through secret ballot. At that time, the Betgari union Convening Committee of BNP, announced a few months ago, was also dissolved.
The schedule for the election of the committee was announced before the triennial conference like the Union Parishad or other general elections. Nominations were submitted and verified as per the announced schedule.
After that, the candidates contesting against various posts were given three days to campaign. After receiving the symbol, the candidates put up posters and campaigned and made public relations.
There were presiding and polling officers and ballot boxes for the election.
Two candidates contested the post of president, two each for the posts of general secretary and organising secretary. The number of voters was 459.
The presiding officer in the election was Golam Rabbani Ranju, a member of the Gangachara upazila BNP convening committee and in-charge of the office.
After three hours of continuous voting on Thursday, upazila BNP convener Waheduzzaman Mabu announced the results at about 8:30pm.
Maulana Shahidul Islam won the post of president with 332 votes in the 鈥楥hair鈥� symbol. His opponent Md Nazrul Islam bagged 114 votes in the 鈥楶ineapple鈥� symbol.
For the post of general secretary, Md Habibur Rahman won with 363 votes in the 鈥楲adder鈥� symbol and his opponent Md Shariful Islam got 85 votes in the 鈥楩ootball鈥� symbol.
Md Nurul Amin Nadim won the post of organising secretary with 290 votes in the 鈥楩ish鈥� symbol and his opponent Md Ahsan Habib lost getting 156 votes in the 鈥楲ock鈥� symbol.
Some 452 voters exercised their right to vote in the election.
Md Waheduzzaman Mabu, the chief guest of the triennial conference, said that like all other democratic elections, all the processes were followed correctly there too. The results were announced after fair voting and counting.
鈥極ur national leader Tarique Rahman said that no committee will be formed based on nepotism. Those who the grassroots leaders and workers vote for will become leaders,鈥� he added.