AL’s Jafar elected Baghaichhari mayor in new EC’s first polls

Trailing closely behind him is independent candidate Md Azizur Rahman with 2,227 votes, who chose the mobile phone as his symbol. BNP candidate Omar Ali got 1,797 votes. Returning Officer Md Nazimuddin declared the results on Saturday  evening. This has been the second ever election for Baghaicchari municipality since its establishment and the first for the newly formed Election Commission. 27 candidates vied for councillor posts and six for reserved women councillor seats. Voting began around 8am and continued until 4pm. Across nine polling centres, the total number of voters was 10,177, with women outnumbering men by a large margin; 1,700 of the voters were indigenous people. While voting was in progress, all three mayoral candidates said polling was carried out smoothly but also simultaneously expressed apprehension regarding the possibility of forced voting through unauthorized outsiders. Jafar Ali accused Azizur Rahman of assembling cadre members from Chittagong’s Raujan and Rangunia Upazila to facilitate voter fraud. At the same time, Azizur Rahman complained that Jafar Ali’s men harassed and threatened his supporters. Both of them alerted the law enforcement about their respective concerns. Each of the three candidates was hopeful that a fair round of voting will ensure their own victory. Strong security measures taken by the authorities seem to have been effective as Rangamati ADC Amir Khasru told the Dhaka Tribune in the morning that additional law enforcement had been deployed at all polling centres and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) members were kept on standby. He said they were prepared to avert any unpleasant situation and also maintain order immediately after the election.