The candidates of the Democratic United Front, an alliance of leftist parties, could not secure a single seat in the 13th National Parliament election. None of the candidates in this alliance could maintain their security deposit. That is, they did not get even one-eighth of the total votes cast in the constituency.

The 13th National Parliamentary Election was held on February 12.

In this, BNP is on the way to forming the government by winning 212 seats. Jamaat-e-Islami has won 68 seats. And the NCP, the party that organized the July mass uprising, has won six seats. In addition, other parties and independent candidates have won 11 seats.

A few left-wing political parties formed an alliance called the ‘Democratic United Front’ before the elections with the aim of building an alternative political force. This united front was formed from the national convention organized by the Left Democratic Alliance and Bangladesh JSD on November 29 last year. Later, more left-progressive, democratic parties and organizations were added to this new alliance. This united front has a platform of eight left-wing political parties.

The parties participate in the elections in coalitions.
There are four political parties registered with the Election Commission in this Democratic United Front. The parties are the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), the Socialist Party of Bangladesh-BASD, the Socialist Party of Bangladesh-BASD (Marxist) and the Bangladesh JSD. This alliance fielded candidates in the elections together. The alliance fielded united candidates in a total of 97 seats.

Apart from this, the parties also fielded candidates on their own from the alliance. In total, the parties in this alliance had candidates for 147 seats. Of these, CPB had candidates for 65 seats, BASD had candidates for 37 seats, BASD (Marxist) had candidates for 33 seats, and Bangladesh JSD had candidates for 15 seats.
Among the candidates of the Democratic United Front, Manisha Chakraborty, the candidate of the alliance partner Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (BSD), received the highest number of votes. She contested from the Barisal-5 constituency. Manisha Chakraborty received 22,486 votes.

According to the Representation of the People Order (RPO), if a candidate gets less than one-eighth of the votes polled in a constituency, the deposit is forfeited. The candidates of the Left parties who contested in 147 constituencies did not get even one-eighth of the total votes polled in each of those constituencies.

In this regard, Bazlur Rashid Firoz, General Secretary of BAD and Coordinator of the Left Democratic Front, said, “If 8 percent of the votes cast are required, then the guarantee will hold. And if one-eighth of the votes cast are required, then the guarantee will not hold. In other seats, other candidates of our alliance received a small number of votes. Many received less than 1,000 votes.”

Nazmul Haque Pradhan, General Secretary of Bangladesh JSD, a partner party of this alliance, contested the election as a candidate from Panchagarh-1 constituency. He is a former member of parliament from this constituency. He won from this constituency in the 10th National Parliament election of 2014. But he could not maintain his deposit in this election. He got 3,100 votes in the election on February 12.

Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) President Kazi Sajjad Zahir Chandan and General Secretary Abdullah Kafi Ratan have both lost their deposit after contesting the election. Kazi Sajjad Zahir Chandan was a candidate from Narsingdi-4 constituency and Abdullah Kafi Ratan was a candidate from Comilla-5 constituency.

Most of the candidates in this alliance received less than 1,000 votes. Some candidates received 2,000 or 3,000 votes.

A total of 65 candidates were fielded from CPB, one of the partners of the Democratic United Front. Of these, Khulna-1 candidate Kishore Roy received the highest number of votes. He received 4,842 votes. Netrokona-1 candidate Alkas Uddin Mir received the second highest number of votes. He received 4,429 votes.

Besides, in Dhaka-8 constituency, AHM Rafiquzzaman Akand of the Bangladesh Socialist Party (Marxist) received 96 votes under the scissors symbol and AFM Ismail Chowdhury of the National Socialist Party (Bangladesh JSD) received 56 votes under the automobile symbol.

In Sylhet-1 constituency, Pranabjyoti Pal of the Bangladesh Samajwadi Party (BSD) received 1,134 votes under the ladder symbol.

Anwar Hossain Suman of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) received 908 votes under the sickle symbol, while Sanjay Kanti Das of the BSP (Marxist) received 801 votes under the scissors symbol.

In Dhaka-5 constituency, Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal-BASD (Marxist) candidate Shahinur Akhter Sumi got 221 votes. There were two female candidates in Dhaka-7 constituency. Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal’s Shahana Selim got 208 votes. BASD (Marxist) Seema Dutta got 677 votes. In Narayanganj-5 constituency, BASD’s Abu Naeem Khan Biplob got 370 votes.

In Joypurhat-1 constituency, BSD (Marxist)’s Taufiqa Dewan received 617 votes and BSD candidate Wazed Ali received 578 votes.

When asked about the results of the election, former CPB General Secretary Ruhin Hossain Prince told Banglanews, “When the election comes to the last moment, voters fall into a two-party calculation, which we have seen. Which party will come to power, which party will stay close. Some of our candidates were in good condition, they also have popularity, but that was not reflected in the final vote count. The two-party calculation was dominant in the vote. And we will discuss and evaluate our weaknesses later.”