A day earlier the BNP candidate for Dhaka south, Ishraque Hossain gave his. Tabith Awal (Dhaka north, the BNP) and Atiqul Islam (Dhaka north, the AL) did somewhat better by making their manifestos public on January 27 and 26 respectively.

We have two overall comments about their manifestos -- first the timing and second the bundle of promises made.

First, the timing. Manifestos are programmes that candidates present to the public revealing their visions, specific programmes and detailed workings of how those ideas will be implemented. With their respective manifestos, candidates face their constituencies, the media and the general public on the viability of their projects and how they will implement them. Not solely but to a large degree, the voters are supposed to choose their favourites from such interactions.

So the question is where is the time to do all that? How do these candidates expect the voters to, first read, and then examine, and then question, then judge and finally to make up their minds about who their favourites will be with such limited time at their disposal? For most voters manifestos would be mere sheets of paper with promises galore. Only the media could have done a thorough job of dissecting their proposals but sufficient time was not there to do a thorough job.

So the inevitable conclusion is that candidates present manifestos merely as a formality and we, the voters, also take it as such. Hence no analysis and no debate about the practicality of their proposals.

This takes away a very exciting aspect of the election. There could have been a genuine competition among candidates to deeply interact with voters and attempt to argue about the merits of their respective proposals and the demerits of that of their opponents. Even if the elections are preordained -- as is widely suspected -- the debate could have been interesting and exciting as they would have revealed the depth of knowledge and capacity for articulation of the candidates.

All contestants, even those who have very little chance of winning, campaign vigorously. So also they would have debated enthusiastically only if the manifestos would come on time.

Thanks to global TV, we see how seriously moderated face-to-face debates captivate audiences in other countries. Here also our TV channels could have organised similar debates if the manifestos came out on time. There were some attempts but nothing compared to what could have been done. “Talk shows” are hardly any substitutes for genuine debates.

Couldn’t the Election Commission do something in this area?

Second comes the question, what’s in the manifestos that four mayoral aspirants gave to the public at the last moment.

Atiqul rolled out a programme emphasising anti-mosquito and anti-air pollution drive. Tabith talked about making Dhaka an “Intelligent city”, scientific waste management and introducing a farmers’ market.

Ishraque promised to turn Dhaka into a top-class metropolis safe for women and fight corruption firmly. Barrister Taposh said he would turn Dhaka south into a tourist hub and turn the premises of the old jail into an amusement park.

Implementing any one or all of these promises would be like a dream come true for every Dhaka resident. However, experiences tell us nothing much is likely to happen for the pledges we hear today are the same we had heard 25 years ago.

Mohammad Hanif, who was our first elected mayor, promised to set up a permanent mechanism to eradicate mosquitos from the city. This particular pledge was repeated by all his successors and is being repeated even in this election.

The fact that every year since then mosquito menace got increasingly more lethal with dengue and chikungunya devastating our urban life in the last few years speaks volumes of his and all subsequent mayors’ “success”.

Hanif also promised to improve the slums and solve waterlogging in the city. His successor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, who was mayor for an unprecedented nine years (due to no election being held) promised to solve our traffic problems. He also promised to make Dhaka a “digital city” (only God knows what he meant), develop the slums and provide quality education for all the poor children in Dhaka.

Hanif’s son Sayeed Khokon, who succeeded Khoka (as mayor of Dhaka south), made the same promises whose fate was also similar. Nothing much really happened but a huge amount of money was spent.

One important reason as to why our mayors fail to keep their promises is that they do not have the legal authority to do much. To start with, the role of the office of mayor remains largely undefined. In fact, the main function of a mayor’s office is to keep the city clean and lighted, and lease out “cow-market” locations during korbani. It also issues rickshaw licences and birth and death certificates and does some such other chores. For practically everything else the mayor has to seek the help of bodies that are not under his control.

We all remember with admiration how late Annisul Huq, our most successful mayor, ran from pillar to post just to find ways to improve the garbage disposal system. He had to lobby with numerous ministries, seek the PM’s blessings whenever he got stuck and personally plead with all concerned during his very short tenure (cut short by untimely passing away) to get anything done. Crucial was the PM’s support.

Dhaka is one of the toughest and most difficult of cities to govern. It has all the problems that a modern urban centre has, and more. On top of it all, Dhaka experienced exponential population growth in the last two decades not faced by cities of similar landmass.

This city needs good governance like nothing else. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina divided Dhaka into North and South principally to address the issue of running the city properly. It was a timely decision. However, it was implemented hurriedly and without the type of advance planning that was required.

All said and done, given the present realities, no mayor can implement anything of substance on his own. Much will depend on his abilities to lobby with relevant bodies, which will only be effective if the PM gives her blessings. On its own, the promises made in their respective manifestos are nothing much to write home about.