All three mayoral candidates backed by the ruling Awami League have won in the elections to Dhaka North and South and Chittagong city corporations that were marked by unbridled vote-rigging and only nearly 44% of voters.
Annisul Huq has unofficially been declared mayor of Dhaka North. He bagged 460,617 votes while his closest contender, BNP-backed Tabith M Awal, got 325,080 votes.
Sayeed Khokon, the aspirant in Dhaka South blessed by the ruling party, won the election by defeating BNP’s Mirza Abbas. The son of Dhaka’s first mayor Mohammad Hanif, Khokon received 532,216 votes while Abbas got 294,291.
In the Chittagong City Corporation election, Awami League-backed AJM Nasir has been elected mayor upon receiving 475,361 votes, while the immediate past mayor M Manjur Alam, backed by the BNP, stood second with 304,837 votes.
According to documents of the Election Commission, the voter turnout in Tuesday’s polls, that came under severe criticism for rigging, was 43.92%.
The lowest voter presence – 37.29% – was seen in the Dhaka North City Corporation while the highest – 48.4% – was in Dhaka South.
The results of three centres under Dhaka South were withheld due to violence.
Voter turnout was 47.9% in the Chittagong City Corporation election.
In the last election to undivided DCC on April 25, 2002, voter turnout was 34.44% while 54.5% was seen in the CCC election held in 2010.
The number of total voters in Dhaka North was 2,345,374, with 1,870,753 in Dhaka South, and 1,813,449 in the CCC.
Massive cancelled votes
A total of 121,003 out of 2,648,728 cast votes (around 4.5%) were declared void in the three city corporations. Of those, 40,130 were in Dhaka South, 33,581 in Dhaka North, and 47,292 in the CCC.
In 2002, as many as 989,182 voters exercised their franchise in the DCC election when the number of cancelled votes was only 22,438.
42 candidates lose deposits
All but six mayoral aspirants, out of 48, in the three city elections had to lose their deposits for failing to get 8% of the total cast votes, according to the Election Commission rules.
Considering the number of voters, the mayoral candidates of Dhaka North had to deposit Tk1 lakh, with Tk50,000 for Dhaka South and for Chittagong.
A total of 1,180 mayoral and councillor candidates contested for 182 posts in the three city corporations.
In DSCC, 20 aspirants took part in the election for the mayoral post, 97 for 19 reserved councillor posts for women, and 390 for 57 general councillor posts.
In Dhaka North, 16 candidates contested for the mayoral post, 89 for 12 reserved seats, and 281 for 36 general councillor posts.
In Chittagong, 12 candidates ran for the mayoral post, 62 for 14 reserved seats, and 213 for 41 general councillor posts.