The two-day annual election to the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) is scheduled for Mar 13 and 14 and speculations are rife about whether the ruling Awami League affiliated panel will win or the opposing BNP one.
A seven member sub-committee led by senior lawyer AY Masiuzzaman will conduct the election for the 2019-20 session.
The panels have already finalised the candidates for the 14 executive posts including that of the president and secretary.
The Awami League backed White panel nominated AM Aminuddin for president, and former secretary of Bangladesh Ain Shamiti Abdun Noor Dulal for secretary.
On the other hand the BNP backed Blue panel has nominated AJ Mohammad Ali for the post of president and former secretary of the association AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon for the post of secretary.
The AL backed panel lost the 2018 election despite the party being in power due to their own internal conflicts.
Leaders from the two ruling-party affiliated organisations Awami Ainjibi Parishad and Bangabandhu Ainjibi Parishad contested in a single panel. However, the leaders of the two organisations went up against themselves and internal conflicts and competition among themselves led to them losing the polls.
AL chief and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina later formed a five member committee led by the party Presidium Member Kazi Zafarullah to probe the matter.
The committee listed conflicts between senior AL lawyers, negative influence in appointing new law officials, over the top campaigns of the attorney general and other law officers, personal conflict between the president and secretary nominee and lawyers not being active in the campaigns.
Responding to queries about whether the internal conflicts have been resolved, Bangabandhu Awami Ainjibi Parishad Joint-Convener Abdul Baset Majumder said, “Our disagreements are artificial ones. There are a few people who refuse to accept their own shortcomings.
“We had similar mindsets. But I will still urge everyone to stop dragging each other through the mud and stand united.”
“I don’t know if there was any internal discord between us previously,” White panel candidate Abdun Noor Dulal told Bangla Tribune.
He added that there were no more conflicts between them, and everyone was happy with the current panel.
“I hope that we will be elected this time. If I’m elected, I’ll definitely try to keep the Supreme Court Bar Association free of politics,” he said.
On the election campaigns, Dulal said, “We are focusing on the new generation and hence have nominated new faces for the president and secretary post.”
“The election will be competitive and the White panel will win,” he added.
Meanwhile, the BNP-backed lawyers see the upcoming polls as a challenge.
“We obviously see the polls as a challenge because the way Awami League steals votes, it is difficult to say what will happen,” said Jainul Abedin who had served as the president during the last term.
BNP National Standing Committee member Jamiruddin Sircar said that BNP has reservations about the upcoming association polls.
“The AL backed candidates might discourage the voters from casting their votes, prevent them from entering the centres or file cases against the candidates,” he said.
He said that they have a good chance of winning if the ruling party or the government doesn’t interfere.
A few lawyers, requesting anonymity said given that there was not enough room in the office of the association to accommodate the increasing number of lawyers in the association.
Even though the plan for a new building has been approved, the government isn’t allocating the budget due to the BNP-backed panel, they said.
They want the AL backed lawyers to win for a new building overall development of the Supreme Court.
There are contradicting opinions too. Many want the BNP affiliated panel to win due to Khaleda Zia not getting bail and as they believe that the BNP leaders and activists are being oppressed with attacks and phantom cases.
According the association sources, there are a total of 8,088 members. The lawyers exercise their franchise in the country’s prime bar association election to elect a panel with 14 executive posts.