JP Mostafa wins Rangpur city polls
Jatiya Party (Ershad) mayoral candidate Mostafizar Rahman Mostafa has won the Rangpur City Corporation election defeating Awami League and BNP contestants by a big margin.
Mostafa bagged 1,60,489 votes in 193 centres, his nearest constant Jhantu got 62,400 votes while BNP candidate Kawsar Zaman Babla secured 35,136 votes.
A total of 2,92,723 votes were cast as the turnout was 74.30%.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. The voting began around 8:00am and continued until 4:00pm without any report of untoward incident.
A total of 3,93,994 voters -- 1,96,356 men and 1,97,638 women -- were expected to exercise their voting right to elect a mayor, 33 ward councillors and 11 councillors to the reserved seats of women in 193 polling centres.
Seven candidates were in the election race for the mayoral post, while 211 candidates for ward councillors and 65 women candidates for reserved seats.
Election Commissioner Rafiqul Islam told reporters that around 65 to 70 percent vote has been cast in the election.
Sharfuddin Ahmed Jhantu the mayoral candidate from Awami League cast his vote at Guptopara Salema Girls High School, Kawsar Zaman Babla of BNP at Mahiganj Dewandigi Government Primary School and Mostafizar Rahman Mostafa of Jatiya Party cast his vote at Alamnagar Government Primary School.
A good number of voters, including female were seen at different polling station to franchise their votes.
Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) instead of ballot paper were used at a polling station as a test run in the election.
Closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras were also installed in three polling stations to monitor the election uninterruptedly. The EC set up two monitoring cells - one in Rangpur and another in the EC Secretariat in Dhaka- to watch the election continuously.
The Commission sent its own observer team, numbering 22 officials, to monitor the polls. Alongside over 5,500 law enforcers, 11 judicial magistrates and 33 executive magistrates were engaged in checking any possible breaching of the electoral code of conduct.
BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Rizvi Ahmed blamed the Election Commission for its failure in holding the election in a free, fair and credible manner.
Besides, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader, in an impromptu reaction, accepted the party’s defeat before announcement of the final result of the election.
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