Sylhet mayor race hangs over postponed voting as BNP’s Ariful leads Kamran of AL

The final mayoral election results in Sylhet have been suspended as the BNP candidate Ariful Haque Chowdhury has taken a lead of 4,626 votes, which is assailable by the Awami League’s Bodor Uddin Ahmed Kamran in re-polling in two postponed centres with 4,787 votes.

The BNP candidate will need only 162 votes in the re-election to the postponed centres to seal the victory, while the task to bag the necessary votes for a victory seems to be huge for the ruling party candidate.

Ariful with paddy sheaf symbol has drawn 90,496 votes while Kamran with boat logo polled 85,870 in 132 of 134 cetnres.

Announcing the results at Abul Maal Abdul Muhith Sports Complex just before Monday midnight, Returning Officer Md Alimuzzaman said he would send the results to the Election Commission for its decision.

Bodor Uddin Ahmed Kamran

Ariful Haque Chowdhury

Outgoing mayor Ariful earlier rejected the results, whatever it may be, alleging widespread rigging and irregularities.

He, however, was present at the sports complex when the results were being announced. The balloting was held from 8am to 4pm.

Half an hour before Alimuzzaman announced the results, Kamran’s chief campaign officer Misbah Uddin Siraj, an organising secretary of the Awami League, demanded recounting of the ballots alleging irregularities in count.

The counts their polling agents received from different centres did not match those announced by the returning officer, he said.

After the announcement, Ariful told reporters they tried to discourage the voters, but the citizens did not stop exercising their right to franchise.

“This victory is of the people,” he said. 

Asked about his previous comments on rejecting the results, he said, “It wasn’t actually a rejection, I only condemned stuffing of ballot papers with fake votes.” 

Kamran was not present at the sports complex at the time.

A total of 198,656 out of 321,732 voters in the city cast their votes while 7,367 votes were cancelled, according to the returning officer.

In the two centres where electronic voting machines or EVMs were used, Ariful is 742 votes ahead of his nearest rival Kamran.

Ariful polled 1,308 while Kamran bagged 566 in these centres with 4,513 registered voters.

As many as 127 candidates are running for 27 general councillor’s post while the number of candidates for the nine councillor posts reserved for women is 63.

Elevated to a city corporation in 2002, Sylhet elected Kamran as mayor in the vote in 2008 and Ariful in 2013.