BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Sunday said Shahadat Hossain, the newly appointed mayor of Chittagong City Corporation (CCC), previously won the 2021 election, but his victory was taken away.
Fakhrul expressed gratitude to the interim government and the judges for recognizing Shahadat as the mayor of Chittagong city.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the comments after paying tribute to the grave of BNP founder Ziaur Rahman at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the capital.
In the CCC election held on January 27, 2021, the Awami League candidate Rezaul Karim Chowdhury won with 369,248 votes, while Shahadat, the BNP candidate, received 52,489 votes.
The Election Commission declared Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, the joint general secretary of the Awami League’s city committee, the winner.
However, alleging vote rigging, Shahadat, filed a case with the election tribunal on February 24 of that year to annul the results.
On October 1, the Joint District and Sessions Judge and Election Tribunal of Chittagong, Mohammad Khairul Amin, declared Dr Shahadat Hossain as the mayor in response to the lawsuit.
On Sunday, Shahadat Hossain was sworn in as the new mayor of CCC.
The oath-taking ceremony took place at 10:30am on Sunday.
AF Hassan Ariff, adviser to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development, and Cooperatives, administered the oath.