Awami League-backed mayoral candidate Anwaruzzaman Chowdhury won the Sylhet City Corporation (SCC) election by defeating Jatiya Party candidate Nazrul Islam Babu with a margin of over 68,000 votes on Wednesday.
Returning Officer Faisal Kadir announced the results of the SCC elections at Jalalabad Gas Auditorium in Sylhet city on Wednesday after the vote counting ended.
Mayor-elect Anwaruzzaman bagged 1, 18, 614 votes while his nearest rival Babu got only 50, 321 votes in the race, putting a difference of 68, 293 votes.
On the other hand, Babu rejected the results soon after it was announced by the returning officer, said the party’s Sylhet metropolitan chapter member secretary Abdus Shaheed Laskar Bashir.
He said their candidate Babu fell sick suddenly, but he had a plan to hold a press conference to formally reject the results.
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“We will immediately take legal actions in this regard and lodge complaints to the authorities concerned,” he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Babu repeatedly alleged that his agents were thrown out of the polling centres by the supporters of the ruling party.
With the the two candidates, six other mayoral candidates contested the polls in Sylhet along with 272 candidates for the post of general ward councillor and 87 for the post of reserved ward councillor.
The voter turnout at the SCC polls was 46 percent, said Chief Election Commission Kazi Habibul Awal at a press conference in Dhaka.
Earlier, voting in the SCC election began on Wednesday using electronic voting machines (EVMs) in all polling stations in a peaceful manner.
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The voting began around 8 am and continued till 4 pm without any break.
At least 2,600 law enforcers were deployed for the SCC election to ensure foolproof security.
Besides, 14 judicial magistrates and 42 executive magistrates in 42 wards discharged duties to take instant action in case of violence.
Forty-two mobile teams were deployed in each general ward, with 24 striking teams in three general wards each, and six reserve striking teams at each thana. Alongside, RAB team, consisting of 22 members, and one platoon of BGB were set to patrol the wards.
This year, a total of 4,86,605 voters were expected to exercise their franchise at the polls.
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