Afsan Chowdhury

Afsan Chowdhury, Scholar and Political Analyst : The countrymen are not at all interested in the Gazipur City Corporation election. I do not know whether citizens of Gazipur are interested or not, but the rest of the country definitely does not care. Actually, the election atmosphere is not of any importance. Back in 2013, the people were very excited regarding the election. But nowadays, the people have been kept so isolated from national politics that they have lost all attraction towards it. They are not even bothered about who will win the Gazipur polls, why or how they will win. They don’t even care about who should win or lose. In short, everyone has already accepted that the Awami League will win.
In the Khulna city polls, the victor was politics, not the Election Commission (EC). A political party won that day, because the EC could not guarantee the people a free and fair election, although no one is saying that the Awami League does not deserve that victory.
People will comment on everything but after the Khulna polls it seemed to the people that an election of a higher standard could have taken place. Furthermore, the newspapers which highlighted the inconsistencies of said election had to face great difficulties.
I do not know why the government was so nervous about the Khulna polls. Otherwise, why were some journalists removed from their respective institutions? I believe that currently politics is confined to only the political parties. The people have very little involvement. That is why they do not care at all about the Gazipur city elections.

Based on an interview by Ashiq Rahman, translated by Abrar Hussain