BNP’s Sakku defeats AL's Sima in Comilla mayoral polls

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) candidate Monirul Haque Sakku has won the Comilla mayoral race with a margin of over 11,000 votes.

The BNP nominee defeated his nearest contender ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) candidate Anjuman Sultana Sima by 11,185 votes in the elections held on Thursday.

Sakku with the BNP’s election symbol ‘Paddy Sheaf’ polled a total of 68,948 votes while his primary rival Sima with election symbol Boat got 57,763 votes, according to the unofficial results.

Returning officer Rakibuddin Mandal declared the unofficial results of 101 polling stations on Thursday night as the voting at two polling stations was postponed.

The returning officer said as much as 1,32,690 voters which account for 63.92 per cent of total 207,566 voters, exercised their franchise in the local government polls.

This is the second election in the local government body since its upgradation from a municipality to city corporation but the first on the political party lines.

As the country’s two primary rival political parties - BNP and AL - fielded candidates, this election, held under the new election commission, turned into an issue of testing popularity.

Earlier, the voting took place from 8:00am to 4:00pm without any break in 628 booths of 103 polling stations.

It was marked sporadic incidents of violence, intimidation, snatching of ballot papers and ballot stuffing that forced the authorities to suspend polling midway at two polling stations.

The maiden election to Comilla City Corporation was held in a non-partisan manner on January 5, 2012 when BNP-backed Sakku was elected the first city mayor defeating AL-supported mayoral candidate Afzal Khan, also Sima's father, with a margin of some 30,000 votes.

The city corporation has 27 general wards.

A total of 114 candidates were there in the race for 27 general councillor posts, while 41 women were contesting the election for nine reserved seats.