Comilla votes Sakku to victory

The Citizens Committee candidate posts a landslide victory in the city corporation polls

Moinul Hoque Chowdhury

and

Shahidul Islam

bdnews24.com

Comilla, Jan 5 (bdnews24.com) - Citizens Committee candidate Monirul Haque Sakku has posted a landslide victory to become the first mayor of Comilla.

Sakku, an 'expelled' BNP leader, bagged 65,577 votes, while his nearest rival Awami League-backed Afazal Khan got 36,471 votes in the maiden polls to the newly-formed city corporation on Thursday.

Returning officer Abdul Baten announced the result 8:45pm, in less than five hours after the polling came to a close.

In the country's first-ever all-electronic voting machine (EVM) polls, 75.06 percent votes were cast, according to the Election Commission.

Sakku was apparently expelled from BNP for deciding to go ahead with the polls despite the EC's announcement to use EVM in all centres. BNP boycotted the election in protest against the use of voting machines and non-deployment of the army.

A total of 169,273 voters cast their votes in the elections to the nation's smallest city corporation at 421 polling booths of the 65 polling centres.

Before Comilla city polls, EVMs were only used in one ward in Chittagong and in nine wards in Narayanganj polls on experimental basis.

Nine candidates ran for the mayoral post and 305 for counsellor and reserved counsellor seats for women.

During the daylong ballot that started at 8am and continued until 4pm, there were no complains either from the voters or the contestants with regard to the EVMs.

On conclusion of hi-tech voting in a peaceful atmosphere, chief election commissioner A T M Shamsul Huda back in the capital said, "People of Comilla have set an example for the future."

Meanwhile, Masud Khan Imran, the son and polling agent of the ruling party-backed mayor aspirant, Afzal Khan, said his family accepted the outcome gracefully. He also congratulated Sakku there.

After the announcement of his victory, former BNP leader Sakku told reporters at the centre that he would work for the development of the city by taking those along who lost the election.

He also promised that he would run the city corporation with suggestions from all mayor aspirants.

Before the result was officially announced, Sakku had claimed his victory by saying, "I'll get 50 percent of the votes. I'm indebted to the people of Comilla. I will repay that debt until my death."

BNP city unit's former president Sakku, who was expelled from his party for ignoring party directives and vying for the mayor post, said, "I will tell madam [BNP chief Khaleda Zia] about the people's verdict. I hope she will take me back in the party."

Of the other mayor aspirants, ruling party's rebel candidate Nur-ur-Rahman Tanim has bagged 4,514 votes, Jatiya Party candidate Ayer Ahmed Selim got 7,961 votes and former Chhatra League district unit general secretary Anisur Rahman Mithu 3,994 votes.

Other aspirants – Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal's Shirin Akter got, Chanchal Kumar Ghosh, Mohammad Salman Syed and Mamunur Rashid – got 1,103, 890, 427 and 585 votes, respectively.

For Thursday's polls, around 3,000 law enforcers, including 1,000 RAB personnel, were deployed in the city's corporation area. At each polling centre, 22 law enforcers were deputed and 24 law enforcers were on duty at each centre considered "sensitive".

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