The ruling Awami League has started portraying Selina Hayat Ivy's victory as a proof that fair and peaceful elections can be held under the incumbent government.

The party is also highlighting the government's popularity and trying to dismiss the BNP-led opposition alliance's demand for holding the national polls under a neutral polls-time government.

The election results have taken BNP leaders by surprise. They, however, believe they were able to send a positive message to people that they want to contest elections although they boycotted the January 5, 2014 national polls.

Meanwhile, BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Rizvi Ahmed at a press conference at the party's Nayapaltan headquarters in the capital yesterday demanded a judicial inquiry into polling, vote-counting and results of the NCC polls.

Both the AL and BNP took the NCC polls, held in a partisan manner for the first time, seriously and as a prestige issue. The much-talked-about election was held on Thursday in a free, fair and peaceful manner in which Ivy defeated Shakhawat Hossain Khan of BNP by nearly 80,000 votes.

AL'S CAMPAIGN

The AL has already started a campaign saying free, fair and credible elections are possible under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led administration and that the ruling party is still popular.

Party insiders said the AL would continue with the campaign until the next national polls in 2019. They would continue to do so to reject the BNP's demand for a neutral polls-time government to oversee the next general election.

Senior AL leader Tofail Ahmed yesterday asked the BNP to contest the next national polls without making any further demands.

"An example has been set by Narayanganj City Corporation polls that elections future elections would also be held in a free and fair manner under Sheikh Hasina," he said at a programme at Dhaka Reporters Unity.

Speaking at a programme, AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader termed the NCC polls a model election. "We want to hold future elections in a similar manner," he said.

AL presidium member Mohammed Nasim said nobody could raise a question about the Narayanganj polls and it proved that national elections in 2019 would be held under Sheikh Hasina in free and fair manner.

LESSON FOR BNP

Most of the central BNP leaders refused to make any comment on the Narayanganj city polls saying that they wanted to examine the results first.

The party is likely to form a commission to find out the reasons behind Shakhawat's defeat. Steps would be taken on the basis of the commission's findings, said a senior BNP leader.

"The election has just ended. We will sit together and analyse the results and come up with a concrete decision about the polls," Goyeswar Chandra Roy, BNP's standing committee member, told The Daily Star. He was the in-charge of the party's coordinating committee on the NCC polls.

Pro-BNP intellectual and Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder Zafarullah Chowdhury said the NCC polls proved that holding polls in a free and fair manner depends on the intention of the government.

"The government knew that Ivy had a good prospect of winning the election and that is why it wanted to hold a fair election. Would they do the same in the national elections?" he questioned.

He said the NCC polls also proved that people preferred Ivy to other mayoral nominees because of her clean image and strong stance against the "criminal activities of ruling party lawmaker Shamim Osman".

Zafarullah also said although Shakhawat was defeated in the election, BNP won it because people had a common perception that his party had boycotted some polls, but he was in the polls race till the end.

"Voter turnout was around 60 percent which means that around 40 percent people did not cast their votes. In any local government elections, the usual rate of vote casting is around 80 percent. That means BNP's claim that people have lost their confidence in elections has been proved to be true to some extent."

The BNP should take a lesson from this election that fielding a good candidate is essential for wining an election, he mentioned, adding that the party should go for forming a bigger platform of opposition parties.

Abdus Salam, BNP chairperson's adviser, said: "It was a local government election. So it should not be compared with national elections. We want to contest a free and fair election. If the government is confident about its popularity, it should make an announcement of holding polls under a neutral polls-time government."