AL’s Atiqul DNCC mayor

Ruling Awami League nominee Atiqul Islam won the mayor's post of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) with a big margin, according to unofficial results of Thursday's by-election declared by the Election Commission.
Atiqul, a candidate with 'Boat' symbol, got a total of pulled 8,39,302 votes from all (1,295) centres while Shafin Ahmed of Jatiya Party got 52,429 votes contesting with 'Plough' symbol.
A total of five mayoral candidates ran in the by-election race. But, BNP boycotted the election protesting the general election of December 30 last year
claiming that a free and fair election is not possible under the current government.
Three others mayoral candidates, who lost the battle, were Anisur Rahman of the National People's Party, Shahin Khan of the Progressive Democratic Party and independent candidate Abdur Rahim.
The seat of DNCC mayor fell vacant following the death of Annisul Huq, who died on November 30 in 2017. The tenure of the newly-elected mayor remains for only 14 months as the tenure of the councillor will expire on May 6 in 2020. Annisul Huq was elected on April 28 in 2015.
Along with the mayoral election of DNCC, the elections of the 36 new Wards and six reserved women seats of DNCC and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) - 18 new Wards and three reserved seats for each of the corporations - were also held on the same day.
The voting of the bifurcated city corporations of Dhaka began on Thursday at 8:00am and continued till 4:00pm amidst rains and gusty winds. The elections were held peacefully. No untoward incident took place in and around the vote centres, claimed the police officials on duty.
The election authority has not yet received any allegation of irregularities in the elections.
Although Jatiya Party's mayoral candidate Singer Shafin Ahmed brought the allegation of some irregularities in the voting, he didn't specify the allegations saying he will talk about it later.
However, an Assistant Presiding Officer Mobarak Hossain, who was on duty with several physical problems, became sick during the polls. He was taken to nearby Mughda Medical College Hospital where the doctors declared him dead.
Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) election Returning Officer Rakib Uddin Mandol told journalists that they don't know the cause of Mobarak's death. But, he was sick earlier.
Witnesses account said the turnover of voters was very poor and casting of votes were slow apparently for the lack of interest of the voters and proper campaign of the contesting mayoral candidates in the by-elections.
In the newly-created 36 Wards of the two city corporations huge number of voters were seen to casting their votes, the witnesses said, adding that most of the ward councillor candidates were active in bringing the voters to the polling booths.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed claimed after the election that the polling was held peacefully. Around 50 per cent voters may have cast their votes in the polls.
"The tenure of the council, which will be elected on Thursday, will remain only 14 months. In such a situation, most of the voters were not interested to cast their votes. Absence of hard contestant was also a major reason of poor voters' turnout in the elections," he added.
Atiqul Islam cast his vote around 9:10am at Nawab Habibullah Model School and College centre in Uttara, while Jatiya Party's contestant singer Shafin Ahmed exercised his franchise at Manarat International School centre in Gulshan around 12:20pm. Atiqul went to the voting center along with the members of his family, while Shafin with his party supporters.
The DNCC mayor elections saw low voter turnout following rain in the morning hours. Polling officials said that voters could not go to the centres in the morning due to rain that has been lashing the country for the last few days.
Voting took place at 1,286 centres in Dhaka North. The total number of voters stands around 30.35 lakh.
While visiting in the morning, very poor presence of voters were found at Little Flower International School in Kazipara, Kalyanpur Girls School in Kalyanpur, Juvenile Care School at Mirpur Lalkuthi, Mohammadpur Government College, T&T Adarsha High School in Mohakhali, Govt College of Physical Education.
The election officials, however, claimed the number of voters started increasing after midday.
The electioneering officially began on February 11 and ended on February 26 midnight.