Awami League mayoral candidate Jahangir Alam is almost certain to be Gazipur’s next mayor.
He enjoyed a massive lead in the vote count of the Gazipur City Corporation election, as this report went to press at 2am.
According to unofficial results as of 2am today, Jahangir had bagged 326,161 votes in 328 centres while BNP mayoral contestant Hasan Uddin Sarker had polled 160,530.
The elections in Gazipur, where election day was relatively peaceful compared with the recent election in Khulna, will widely be seen as a success for the Election Commission.
A win for Jahangir would also signify a comeback for the Awami League in Gazipur – the largest city corporation outside of Dhaka – where the mayorship was previously held by the BNP.
It will be seen as a tour de force as the nation’s political parties prepare to contest the national polls six months hence.
Around 11:30pm on Tuesday, Jahangir came to the Bangataz Auditorium, along with a throng of supporters, where Returning Officer Rakib Uddin Mondal was announcing the official results.
Jahangir was smiling and showing victory signs to the cameras. The candidate met with the returning officer and spoke to journalists as well.
After the win, Jahangir said he would build Gazipur as a planned city.
“I will work with everyone. My first task will be coordination. I want to bring relief to citizens’ lives by fixing the traffic problem, by repairing the roads and fixing the sewerage system. I will speak to everyone and create a master plan,” he said.
Earlier, he had told reporters at his home that he was elated from the news of victories coming from everywhere, and this was the result of hard work.
“The city corporation belongs to everyone. The people of Gazipur city suffer from traffic jams, from waterlogging, and we have to find solutions to these issues. Let us all work together to solve these problems,” he said.
He also urged his voters and opponents alike to work together for the well-being of the city.
The polls had opened at 8am on Tuesday and the turnout was said to be around 50% of the 1,137,736 registered voters.
Voters queue up outside a polling centre on Tuesday to cast their votes during the Gazipur City Corporation polls Mehedi Hasan/Dhaka Tribune
The BNP has claimed multiple incidences of vote fraud and rigging. Polls were suspended by the Election Commission at just 2% of all polling centres.
Even before the polls closed at 4pm, the BNP and its candidate had lodged multiple allegations of irregularities by the ruling party.
Awami League and its mayoral candidate claimed that the balloting was “largely fair,” however, and that BNP had levelled the allegations “to make the polls controversial.”
Even so, the voting was suspended in nine of the total 425 polling centres.
Those were - Tongi’s Khortoil Monsoor Ali Model School, Binda Government Primary School, Haji Piar Ali Government Primary School, Bhogra Madhyapara Government Primary school, Jahan Public School Dattapara, Khilgaon Government Primary School, Modinatul Ulum Senior Madrasa, and Kunia Haji Abdul Latif Government Primary School 1 and 2.
‘BNP candidate brought false allegations’
Awami League candidate Jahangir had expressed his hope for the victory while casting his vote at Kanaia Government Primary School under ward No 30 in the morning.
Also Read- Voting in Gazipur ends peacefully, counting begins
Talking to UNB later, he said the BNP candidate had brought various false allegations to make the election controversial. “It is BNP’s old nature,” he said.
Jahangir also denied that his supporters drove the BNP candidate’s agents out of any polling station.
“It’s the weakness of the BNP mayoral runner that he could not send his agents,” he said.
Trashing BNP’s various allegations, Awami League Joint General Secretary Jahangir Kabir Nanak said the opposition party was making false allegations to put the election into question and create controversy.
“BNP could not get its agents to many centres because of its internal feuds and the party mayoral candidate’s weakness,” he told a press conference at the party president’s Dhanmondi office in Dhaka.
‘AL activists drove BNP agents out’
After casting his own vote at Bashiruddin Udayan Academy polling centre in Tongi in the morning, BNP mayoral candidate Hasan went to the returning officer with written allegations of fraud by Awami League activists and demanded that the Election Commission suspend voting.
“They occupied over 100 centres since the morning after driving out my polling agents and established full control over all the polling stations by 1pm,” he said at a press conference in Gazipur.
“The ruling party men stuffed ballots and cast fake votes in the absence of my agents.”
BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi also supported the claim that ruling party men had occupied voting centres and stuffed ballots.
“As per the information we have received so far, over 100 polling stations have been captured... A grand festival of vote rigging is going on,” he told a press conference at the party’s Naya Paltan headquarters around 11am.
He also alleged that their candidate’s polling agents were forced out of many centres by the ruling party men, with the help of police.
A two-member BNP delegation, led by the party’s Joint Secretary General Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, had met Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda at his office to lodge various complaints over the polls in the afternoon.
“Police played a fierce role in favour of the ruling party,” Alal told journalists after the meeting.
“We are frustrated after meeting the CEC as he could not do anything to ensure fair balloting. He requested us to stay in polls until the last minute. We are sorry as he failed to assure us of fair polls.”
Five other candidates had entered the race to become the mayor of the 11th city corporation of the country.
They were – CPB’s Kazi Mohammad Ruhul Amin, Islami Oikya Jote’s Fazlur Rahman, Islami Andolan Bangladesh’s M Nasir Uddin, Bangladesh Islami Front M Jalal Uddin, and independent runner Farid Ahmed.
In addition, 254 general councillor and 84 reserved-seat female councillor candidates were also in the race.
As tensions boiled over, two councillor candidates – Hannan Mia Hannu and Zillur Rahman Mukul of Wards 26 and 38, respectively – were injured in separate scuffles that took place during the polling on Tuesday.
Zillur was later taken to a local hospital for treatment.
Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were used in six centres, while closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed in two.
