Cumilla mayoral by-election: Sakku, Suchana emerge as main competent

There are four candidates for the mayoral by-election of Cumilla City Corporation, but the electoral calculation has changed a lot at the last moment. At the beginning of the campaign, there was a possibility of a tough competition between four or three candidates, but now that has changed. Cumilla's political analysts believe that the competition will be between two candidates in the Cumilla city election.

They think that the two main candidates are the former mayor BNP-backed Monirul Haque Chowdhury Sakku and Tahsin Bahar Suchana, the daughter of the Awami League lawmaker from Cumilla Sadar-6 constituency AKM Bahauddin Bahar.

Five political analysts, speaking on condition of anonymity, opine that those who genuinely want a change in the Cumilla city are in favour of these two aspirants.

The popularity of Nizam Uddin Qaiser, another candidate from BNP, could not reach the height as of Munirul Haque Sakku. The gap between Sakku and Nizam's popularity among the voters is huge. Voters who are against AL MP Bahauddin Bahar, therefore, will favour Sakku more. Because, according to their idea of electoral strategy, Sakku is the only alternative to anti-AL voters.

On the other hand, those who are opposed to BNP have confidence in Tahsin Bahar from the start of the campaign. Former VP Nur Ur Rahman Mahmud Tanim, another mayoral aspirant from the AL, is not supposed to survive the competition with Sakku. As Tanim stayed out of politics for a long time, his distance with the leaders and activists has increased, as well as his importance has decreased. Analyzing the popularity, there is no chance for him to survive with his rival Sakku, because among the four candidates in this election, he has carried out the minimum campaign. Tanim, however, alleged that his posters and banners were torn down by the supporters of the opponents.

Considering all the aspects, Sakku and Suchana are going to be the main competitors in the upcoming mayoral by-election of Cumilla City Corporation scheduled for Saturday next.

About 3,000 members of law enforcing agencies including RAB, Police, BGB and Ansar have already been prepared to hold the election in a free, fair and peaceful manner. Besides, 36 judicial and executive magistrates will be deployed in the field. In addition to this, a monitoring team of the district administration led by Deputy Commissioner Khandaker Md Mushfiqur Rahman will remain active to hold the election peacefully at the 105 poll centres in the city. All formal activities of polling have already been completed.

According to the Election Commission sources, voting will be held through EVM in 27 wards of Cumilla City Corporation. Some 2,42,458 voters are expected to exercise their franchise in the election. Of them, 1,18,182 are male voters while 1,28, 278 are female. Besides, there are two third gender voters.

Mentionable, on June 15, 2022, General Secretary of Metropolitan Awami League Arfanul Haque was elected Mayor of Cumilla. He took over as mayor on July 7 of that year. He died at Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital on December 13 last year. On his death, the post of mayor became vacant. There is an obligation to hold the election within 90 days if the mayoral post becomes vacant.