Reflections of an NCP Candidate

In the unofficial results, we were defeated by nearly 17,000 votes. The winning candidate, BNP's Zainul Abdin Farroque, won with 83,783 votes. We came second with the Shapla Koli symbol, securing 66,957 votes.

In my constituency for this election, we spent the least amount of money among all candidates. We simply didn't have the capacity to spend more. Throughout the entire election, we had the fewest banners and the fewest festoons.

Our rival candidates spent lakhs of taka per polling center. There are a total of 111 centers in my constituency. On the day before the election, our rival candidates distributed several lakhs of taka per center to buy votes.

In contrast, we couldn't even properly provide travel expenses or tea and snacks for our agents and workers at each center.

Almost everyone in my constituency would agree unanimously that even if we had spent just half of what our rivals spent, we would have won by at least a 20,000-vote margin.

Money isn't everything in an election, but we were forced to accept that money had a decisive impact in causing our defeat.

Seeing our limited resources, some people wanted to help us by sacrificing everything they had. When they saw we were struggling to cover center expenses, one brother handed me his land deed and all the related documents, saying: "Brother, mortgage my land at the bank and take the money."

Many people pressed 20, 50, or 100 taka into our hands. But in the face of the massive amounts of black money in the election, these small acts of self-sacrifice couldn't make a difference.

Still, the way a huge number of people responded to our campaign despite our limited resources -- especially young voters and women voters -- was unprecedented.

The BNP candidate received legacy votes, meaning votes from those who have traditionally supported BNP generation after generation. However, those votes alone were not enough for his victory.

According to our analysis, it was mainly Awami League votes and minority voters' votes that went to the Paddy Sheaf (BNP symbol).

Moreover, in centers where Awami League voters and minority voters were in the majority, the BNP candidate won by huge margins.

In other words, those voters cast their votes in a unified way. We couldn't properly assure or convince them.

There were some allegations of fake votes and irregularities. In one center, I personally found some evidence and informed the administration. I don't know how decisive these were in the overall election. But even knowing about them, we had no mechanism to stop them. Once again, it comes down to our resource limitations.

I received the unstinted support of most of the local Jamaat leaders and activists. They worked extremely hard and provided me with all-out assistance.

In just three weeks of election campaigning, I visited nearly every ward in my area -- over a hundred wards in total. I met face-to-face with around 100,000 people and built direct connections with them. This experience was truly unprecedented.

Nationally, through this election, we have established a new baseline for electoral politics. It will shape the politics of the coming days. The future of politics and elections will depend on how much good governance the BNP can deliver.

On issues of reform, good governance, and justice, we will keep the BNP under pressure. They must remember that there is no bad alternative in front of them now.

This time they won with legacy votes and some Awami support, but next time the election will be judged by the standard of good governance.

Sultan Mohammed Zakaria was the NCP candidate for Noakhali-2 in the 13th National Election 2026.