Staff Reporter :
Despite announcement of withdrawal, out of 134 councillor posts, eighteen BNP-supported men won in the Tuesday’s three city corporation elections of Dhaka North City Corporation, Dhaka South City Corporation and Chittagong City Corporation. Jamaat-e Islami men got 2 posts.
Other BNP-backed councillor candidates fought neck-to-neck with Awami League-backed candidates in spite of allegations of massive vote rigging and capture of polling centres.
The Jatiya Party, the main opposition party in the parliament, however, could not win a single councillor post in any city corporations, the Election Commission officials said.
Of the total 36 wards in Dhaka North City Corporation [DNCC], the EC announced unofficial results of 35 wards till yesterday evening. Of them, AL-backed candidates won in 21 wards, the AL rebel candidates won in 12 wards and two BNP- supported candidates won in two city wards. One of the two BNP councillors, one is Sazzad Hossan in Ward no 21. He bagged almost 14, 892 votes double of his AL rival.
Out of 57 wards in Dhaka South City Corporation [DSCC], the BNP-sponsored candidates won in seven wards. All the councillors in Lalbagh, Kotwali and Sutrapur areas are BNP men.
According to EC, the BNP-backed candidates are: president of Gandaria thana BNP Mokbul Islam Tipu in Ward No 40, MA Shahed Montu in Ward No 45, Abdul Quadir, Anwar Hossain Parvez Badal in Ward No 28, Shafiqul Islam Russell in Ward No 29 and rebel candidate of BNP Badal Sarker won in Ward No 49.
Of the women reserved seats of DSCC, three BNP councilors won. They are Suraya Begum in ward No 12, Shamsunnahar Bhuiyan in ward No 10 and Khaleda Alam in Ward No 17.
On the other hand, the AL-backed candidates won in 29 wards, AL rebels in four wards, BNP-rebels in two wards and three others won in women reserved seats.
In Chittagong City Corporation [CCC], out of 41 councillor posts, AL-backed candidates won in 34 wards, BNP-sponsored in 5 wards and Jamaat-e Islami men won in two wards.
Meanwhile, the EC said about 43.97 per cent votes were cast in the Tuesday’s three city corporation elections, including DNCC, DSCC and CCC.
“Out of total 60 lakh 20 thousand 952 voters, about 26 lakh 48 thousand 728 cast their votes in three city corporations,” Director of EC SM Asaduzzaman said at a media briefing on Wednesday.
The percentage of vote casting in DSCC was 48.57 per cent, where out of 18 lakh 70 thousand 778 voters, about 9 lakh 5 thousand 484 cast their votes. Here, the number of cancelled votes was 40, 130, he said.
On the other hand, the vote casting percentage in DNCC was 37.29. Out of 23 lakh 44 thousand 900 voters, about 8 lakh 74 thousand 581 cast their votes. Here, 33,541 votes were cancelled, he said.
In CCC, the percentage of vote casting was 47.89. Out of 18 lakh 13 thousand 600 voters, about 8 lakh 68 thousand 663 cast their votes. Of them, 47, 292 votes have been cancelled.
The EC official said, about 1 lakh 21 thousand 5 votes were cancelled in three city corporations, which was 4.56 percent of total vote casting.
