Five mayoral and sixty-two councillor candidates lost security deposits in Barisal City Corporation (BCC) election on Monday, where at least seven councillor aspirants from the BNP became victorious despite being expelled from the party.
There is a provision to cancel the security deposits of the candidates concerned if they get less than one-eighth of the votes cast in the election, Returning Officer Humayun Kabir said Tuesday.
The much-hyped election was held relatively in a free and fair manner like in Gazipur, except for a few allegations raised by the defeated candidates. Out of the 142,177 votes cast, 421 votes were cancelled. Accordingly, the number of valid votes is 141,756 (51.46%).
A total of seven candidates contested the mayoral election, 115 for the post of 30 general councillors and 42 for the post of 10 reserved female councillors.
Awami League-nominated Abul Khair Abdullah (Khokon Serniabat) received 87,808 votes (61.9%) while his nearest contender Islami Andolan Bangladesh's Nayeb-e-Ameer Mufti Syed Mohammad Faizul Karim received 33,828 votes (23.9%).
The BNP did not nominate any candidate for the mayoral race and expelled 19 leaders and activists for defying the party's decision. The party also formed committees to ensure that no member of the party or its affiliate bodies campaign for any expelled leader or any other candidate.
Among the elected BNP leaders and activists, Syed Habibur Rahman Farooq, senior vice president of Ward No 3 BNP, won the polls. Others are BNP activist Selim Ahmed in Ward No 8, Syed Humayun Kabir Linku, senior vice president of ward unit Jubo Dal, in Ward No 9, Ziaul Haque, member secretary of ward BNP, in Ward No 18, Feroze Ahmed, former president of ward unit and vice president of city unit, in Ward No 24, Humayun Kabir, general secretary of ward BNP, in Ward No 28, and Rashida Parveen, member of the Metropolitan Convening Committee of the BNP, won in the reserved seat No 10.
One leader of BNP ally Jamaat-e-Islami, Moniruzzaman Talukder, became a councillor in Ward No 27. He is a member of the metropolitan unit.
In Khulna, none of the nine expelled BNP leaders could win the election.
Two councillor candidates won the polls uncontested and the AL also won 28 posts in the polls when Jamaat got one.
IAB leaders rejected the results both in Khulna and Barisal and threatened to boycott polls in Sylhet and Rajshahi, due on June 21.
Victory amid rivalry
Abul Hasanat Abdullah, the district Awami League president and the new mayor's elder brother, and his son outgoing mayor Seriabat Saidq Abdullah, also the city AL secretary, congratulated the new mayor yesterday. Sadiq, however, did not cast his vote on Monday.
Also, local and central Awami League leaders congratulated the new mayor. They expressed hope that the winning streak will continue in the next national elections.
Among the newly-elected councillors, 13 are followers of Sadiq Abdullah, seven follow Khokon Serniabat while six are BNP activists, one is Jamaat member and three are independent candidates.
Khaleque greeted on his hat-trick win
Talukder Abdul Khaleque yesterday said spontaneous support of Awami League leaders and activists and development were behind his victory in the city polls for the third time.
“Our party and supporters were spontaneous. And the people of Khulna had support for development. Because of this, I won,” he said.
“During the election campaign, I said that the development works of 200-250 roads, drains and canals are in progress. I will complete these tasks first.”
He continued: "There are rules of the city corporations, the elected councillors have to coordinate with me. The mayor will carry out his work with his specific goals. Whoever is elected to run the city corporation, has to do so with the mayor.”