Awami League-backed Nasir elected mayor to Chittagong City Corporation

AJM Nasir Uddin in his first attempt to get elected to an office of public representative has won the Chittagong City Corporation mayor race that saw his BNP-backed rival reject the vote citing massive rigging.

The Awami League-endorsed candidate won by 170,524 votes.

His polls logo ‘elephant’ drew 475,361 votes, according to the results announced by Returning Officer Abdul Baten at the MA Aziz Stadium at 3:25am on Wednesday.

His nearest rival BNP-endorsed candidate M Manjur Alam, who announced the vote boycott alleging fraud, got 304,837 votes with his symbol ‘orange’.

Manjur has also announced that he was quitting politics.

The BNP-backed mayor candidates in Dhaka also announced their boycott of the polls.

Voting at 719 centres in the port city was held from 8am to 4pm on Tuesday.

A total of 47.9 percent of more than 1.8 million voters in Chittagong cast their votes.
 
Of the 868,663 cast votes, 47,292 were cancelled.
 
The Election Commission did not suspend polling in any of the centres in the city, even though many of them saw irregularities and large-scale rigging by ruling party supporters.

The polls to the Chittagong City Corporation took place along with the Dhaka North and Dhaka South city corporations.
 
Other than Nasir and Alam, 10 candidates ran for the mayor.

Jatiya Party’s Solaiman Alam Sheth (dish antenna) got 6,131 votes, BNF’s Arif Moinuddin (bus) 1,774 votes, Islami Front’s MA Matin (spinning wheel) 11,655 votes and Islamic Front’s Hossain Mohammad Mujibul Haque Shukkur (peacock) 4,215 votes.
 
Syed Sazzad Joha (cricket bat) bagged 845 votes, Wayej Hossain Bhuiyan (table clock) 9,668 votes, Shafiul Alam (hilsa) votes, Saifuddin Ahmed Robi (flask) 2,661 votes, Abul Kalam Azad (matchbox) 1,385 votes and Gazi Md Alauddin (telescope) got 2,149 votes.
 
In Chittagong, 217 contested for general councillor posts in 41 wards, while 62 are vying for 14 wards reserved for women councillors.