The ruling Awami League (AL) has decided to contest the upcoming municipal polls alone, despite being the largest partner of the 14-party alliance. The decision came out yesterday from the party’s central working committee meeting held at Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s official residence Ganabhaban. Sheikh Hasina, also the party president, chaired the nearly 3-hour meeting that began at 6:15pm. “Yes, we are the major partner of the 14-party alliance, but it is not the parliamentary polls. This is a local government election, so we have decided unanimously to contest the pourashava elections alone,” AL Joint General Secretary Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif told this correspondent after the end of the meeting. The party also finalised the nomination process for the coming municipality elections. The AL presidents and secretaries of every district, upazila and pourashava and a local lawmaker will primarily select the party candidates.
Later, the local government/poura mayor nomination board formed by the party high command will finalise the candidate’s name following recommendations of the AL central committee. Meanwhile, the BNP-led 20-party alliance yesterday night decided to join the December-30 municipality elections with ensuring a lone candidate in each of the 236 municipalities from the coalition, reports UNB. However, the alliance did not formally announce its decision in this regard after a meeting of its top leaders with BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan office.  Talking to UNB after the meeting, Fariduzzaman Farhad, president of the BNP-led alliance's partner National People's Party, said all the members of their coalition agreed to take part in the elections. "We've decided to join the polls under the banner of 20-party alliance."  He said the meeting also decided to give a lone candidate from the alliance in each municipality to ensure the victory of their candidates. Farhad said all alliance members were asked to submit the list of their parties' candidates to BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia by Friday. Later, he said, the BNP chief will finalise the 236 candidates of the 20-party alliance to vie for the mayoral posts in the polls. Farhad said the formal decision of the 20-party about joining the polls is likely to be announced on Saturday.