Jatiya Party-backed mayoral candidate Md Mostafizur Rahman Mostafa on Tuesday unofficially won the high-voltage Rangpur City Corporation (RCC) election for the second consecutive time. Mostafa bagged 1, 46,798 votes while his nearest contestant Amiruzzaman from Islami Andolon Bangladesh polled 49,892 votes. His lead over the ruling Awami League’s candidate Hosne Ara Lutfa Dalia was a huge margin of 1, 24,492 votes. Independent candidate (AL’s rebel candidate) Latifur Rahman bagged 33,883 votes by securing third position in the race while the AL-backed candidate in the 4th spot. Returning officer Abdul Baten announced the results from district’s Shilpakala Academy around 12.15am when the vote counting completed. Out of the 9 mayoral candidates, Mostafa contested the election with the "Plough" symbol while Amiruzzaman from Islami Andolon Bangladesh with “Hat Pakha” symbol. Rangpur is known as a stronghold of the Jatiya Party as the party’s founder late HM Ershad hailed from the district.   The returning officer said over 2, 79,000 out of 426,470 exercised their franchises in the RCC elections with 65.8 percent turnover. Starting the RCC voting at 8.00am using electronic voting machines (EVMs) at 229 centers continued till around 8.30pm, with the scheduling to be ended at 4.00pm. Nine candidates vied for the mayoral post while 183 people contested for councillor posts under 33 wards. 68 candidates fought the polls for 11 reserved seats. Read more: Election violence under present EC drops to zero: CEC The other mayoral candidates are Abu Raihan from Bangladesh Congress, Touhidur Rahman Mandal from Khelafat Majlish, Shafier Rahman from Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Khorshed Alam from Zaker Party and Mehedi Hasan as independent candidate. After the landslide victory, Mostafizur in an instant reaction said it is not his victory, rather the credit goes to the city dwellers. Campaigning in the Rangpur City Corporation election ended on Sunday midnight amid much enthusiasm. A total of 229 presiding officers, 1,349 assistant presiding officers and 2,698 polling officers are performing their duties to maintain order in the voting centres. The first Rangpur City Corporation election was held on December 21, 2017. The tenure of the current mayor will expire on February 18, 2023. Earlier on Tuesday afternoon, CEC Kazi Habibul Awal said the voting was underway at a slow pace for using EVMs. The voting might continue till 7-8 pm due the long queues at the polling centres, he added. The EC would look into whether there is any other reason behind the delay in voting, he added. Read more: Rangpur City Corporation: Voting begins amid enthusiasm “We have got some allegations of slow voting due to electronic voting machines (EVMs) but all the voters at the centers will be allowed to exercise their franchise till night,” he said. The Election Commission was monitoring the election through CC cameras from a control room.  

The High Court on Monday directed Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) to protect 952 ponds under its jurisdiction. A bench of Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury and Justice Kazi Ebadat Hossain made the direction during hearing on a writ petition filed by environment human rights organization Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB). The court also asked to ensure no more ponds get occupied or filled in the city. RCC mayors, Rajshahi Directorate of Environment and Deputy Commissioner have been asked to implement the order. Also read: Writ petition challenges legality of raising fuel prices The court also directed to return the ponds of RCC to their previous state and said the trial in this regard will continue, said HRPB president Manzil Morshed. Manzil Morshed said the writ petition was filed in 2014 to stop the filling up of ponds in the RCC area. The High Court then issued a rule questioning why a direction to stop filling and protecting the ponds in the RCC area will not be issued and asked Rajshahi DC to inform the numbers of ponds. Also read: People suffer as demand for a RCC bridge goes unheeded After that, Rajshahi DC submitted a report to HC informing there are a total of 952 ponds in RCC. On February 23, this year, a supplementary appeal with the writ was submitted adding a report published in a national daily titled, `'Conserved pond filled up to sell as plots'", said the HRPB president.