Will Ivy stay on or can Taimur take over? Narayanganj voters deciding their fate

Voters in Narayanganj have begun casting their votes to decide whether to let Salina Hayat Ivy continue as mayor of the city corporation for another term, or replace her with main contender Taimur Alam Khandaker.

Election officials said the voting at 192 polling stations began on schedule, 8am, on Sunday with no report of major disruption as the voters started queuing on a winter morning. Polling will close at 4pm.

The voting is being held through electronic voting machines or EVMs exclusively for the first time in the city, an industrial hub.

Although the EVM voting in recently held Dhaka-10 parliamentary by-election failed to draw voters, the turnout in the city of over half a million voters will be high, hopes the Election Commission.

Observers think the race in Narayanganj is important on a national scale as it will be a mini-referendum on the Awami League governance and closely watched internationally ahead of the parliamentary polls in 2023.  

This is also the last major poll being held under the outgoing Election Commission led by KM Nurul Huda. After deadly clashes in previous and ongoing union council polls, observers believe the commission can save its face somewhat by organising a free, fair and peaceful election in Narayanganj, a city near capital Dhaka.

The Awami League hopeful Ivy, and BNP leader Taimur, who is contesting as an independent, are the main contenders for the mayor’s office. Apart from five more mayor candidates, 182 are vying for the councillor posts.

Ivy hopes the people will pick her again because of her work for the city corporation in the past stints.

But Taimur believes the voters will turn to him because of their “anger towards the past leaders of the corporation”.

Besides the fears of violence among the candidates, the coronavirus pandemic has become another factor in the voting as the government reimposed a nationwide ban on gatherings in the last days of the campaigning to control rising infections. The restrictions, however, were largely ignored during campaign in the city.

More than 5,000 security personnel from the police, RAB, Ansar and BGB have been deployed on the voting day. Each ward will have one executive magistrate.

THE MAYORAL RACE

Seven candidates are running for mayor in Sunday’s election.

Candidate	Party	Symbol
Salina Hayat Ivy	Bangladesh Awami League	Boat
Taimur Alam Khandaker	Independent (BNP)	Elephant
ABM Sirajul Mamun	Khilafat Majlish	Wall clock
Md Masum Billah	Islami Andolan Bangladesh	Hand fan
Md Kamrul Islam	Independent	Horse
Md Jashim Uddin	Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan	Banyan tree
Md Rashed Ferdous	Bangladesh Kalyan Party	Wristwatch

THE NARAYANGANJ CITY CORPORATION ELECTION 2022

>> The city has a total of 517,361 registered voters – 259,846 men, 257,511 women and four third gender

>> The election will decide the post of mayor, 34 reserved women councillors and 148 ward councillors

>> Voters will cast their votes at 1,333 ballot boxes in 192 polling centres

>> The election results will be announced from the returning officer’s control room at the Narayanganj Club after the count is finished

POLL WATCHERS

The Election Commission has approved 42 members of nine registered election observers to oversee the polls.

Election observers will be present in the vote-counting room and the returning officer’s office when votes are consolidated.

In addition to these observers, some 1,000 local and national journalists will be covering the election.

A DECADE OF NARAYANGANJ CITY CORPORATION POLLS

The first Narayanganj City Corporation election was held on Oct 30, 2011. Shamim Osman, the ruling party-backed former member of parliament, lost to city Awami League Vice President Salina Hayat Ivy by over 100,000 votes.

The second city corporation election was held on Dec 22, 2016, and was the first to be contested by party candidates. The Awami League’s Ivy was re-elected as mayor after beating BNP candidate Sakhawat Hossain Khan by about 75,000 votes.

The third Narayanganj City Corporation election is being held ahead of the Feb 7, 2022 deadline specified by the law.