AL’s Ivy registers big win

Awami League candidate Selina Hayat Ivy has become Narayanganj City Corporation’s mayor for consecutive third term beating her nearest rival Taimur Alam Khandakar by over 66 thousand votes.

Ivy got 159,057 votes while former BNP leader and independent candidate Taimur bagged 92,562 votes.

Returning officer Mahfuza Akter announced the results from Narayanganj deputy commissioner’s office.

Among the other candidates, Islami Andolan Bangladesh’s Masum Billah got 23,987 votes, Bangladesh Khalafat Majlish’s ABM Sirajul Mamun secured 10,724 votes ,Bangladesh Kalyan Party’s Rashed Ferdaus got 1,927 votes, Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan’s Md Jashim Uddin 1,309 votes and another independent candidate Kamrul Islam 1,305 votes.

Of the total 5,17,351 votes, a total of 290,911 legal votes were cast and 771 votes were cancelled.

With the latest victory, Ivy is the first city mayor to win the polls for the third consecutive term.

Talking with reporters, Ivy dedicated her landslide victory to prime minister Sheikh Hasina and people of Narayanganj.

Ivy said she would continue to work as per the need of the people.

Taimur blamed ‘internal mechanism of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM)’ for his defeat.

Expressing his reaction to Prothom Alo at around 9:30pm, Taimur alleged the administration, police and election commission all worked as per wish of prime minister.

He, however, thanked the residents of Narayanganj and the media.

“People have won in this election. The image of the government has been tarnished,” Taimur said.

The voting started at 8:00am and ended at 4:00pm. However, the voting continued after 4:00pm due to the slow pace of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and the presence of voters in some centres of Bandar upazila.

Ivy became the first mayor of Narayanganj and the first ever woman mayor of the country in 2011 beating AL-nominated candidate Shamim Osman by over 100,000 votes. In 2016 mayoral election, Ivy defeated the BNP candidate Shakhawat Hossain Khan by 77,902 votes.