BNP-backed mayor aspirants on way to triumph over AL-blessed rivals in all 4 city polls
BNP-backed mayoral contenders were leading their rivals supported by the ruling Awami League by a considerable margin in four city corporations in a high-voltage battle of ballots, which was held peacefully yesterday.
In Rajshahi City Corporation, Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul’s win will bring the BNP leader back to the helm of the city after a gap of five years. BNP-supported candidates had won the previous two mayoral polls in 1994 and 2002.
AL favourite AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, who was elected mayor in 2008, was facing defeat at the hands of Bulbul this time. Bulbul was leading by 13,955 votes as of 10:30pm.
Results available in Khulna City Corporation indicated that the local BNP leader would eventually secure the position of the city mayor once again after five years.
BNP favourite Moniruzzaman Mony was leading AL-backed candidate Talukder Abdul Khaleque by 18,760 votes. Khaleque had secured the mayoralty in 2008 ending a 16-year run of BNP leader Sheikh Tayebur Rahman.
BNP-backed mayoral candidates in both Barisal and Sylhet were also leading their rivals by 8,052 votes and votes 37,201 votes as of 10:30pm.
In Barisal, Ahsan Habib Kamal was close to a victory over AL-backed Shawkat Hossain Hiron, who won the mayoral post in the 2008 polls.
In Sylhet, BNP favourite Ariful Haque Chowdhury was about to do exactly what AL-backed Khaleque had done in Khulna in 2008. Arif’s win will end a long rule of Badruddin Ahmed Kamran, who had served as mayor since the formation of Sylhet City Corporation in 2002. Before his election as city mayor, he had been elected the chief of the Sylhet municipality.
Liton, Khaleque, Hiron and Kamran resigned as mayors of the four city corporations to contest the polls. They had been elected mayors in the 2008 polls, a few months before the ninth parliamentary election.
Yesterday’s voting signalled that people in the four city corporations had opted for a change at the helm in their cities.
Though non-partisan in nature, the polls have appeared to be a battle of prestige for both the ruling and the opposition alliance ahead of the parliamentary election to be held at the end of this year.
The initial results boosted the confidence of the main opposition leaders, who claimed that being fed up with the ruling party, people had voted in favour of the opposition’s demand for a non-partisan government to oversee the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Throughout the day, both the alliances, led by the Awami League and the BNP, were on their nerves’ edge centring on the elections.
The main opposition monitored the elections from the capital and held press briefings. They also rushed to the Election Commission office in Dhaka many a time to lodge complaints.
The results came as a major setback for the ruling alliance. Its leaders, however, claimed that it had again been proved that free and fair elections were possible under the Awami League-led government.
“The party that will face defeat in the city polls will have a warning ahead of the next parliamentary elections,” said Communications Minister Obaidul Quader, also presidium member of AL, while inaugurating a rail crossing flyover in Comilla.
The voting in the four city corporations — Rajshahi, Barisal, Sylhet and Khulna — ended peacefully at 4:00pm with satisfactory turnouts of voters. Men, women and the elderly came out in droves long before the voting began to cast ballots. The turnout of female voters was remarkable.
A few untoward incidents did take place, but all the leading mayoral aspirants expressed satisfaction over the polls environment.
In Khulna, a man was declared dead shortly after law enforcers chased a procession brought out in the city in the morning in breach of the election code of conduct.
Source: The Daily Star
