Annisul, Khokon, Nasir win controversial polls

Awami League-backed candidates Annisul Huq, Sayeed Khokon and AJM Nasir have been unofficially elected mayors of three major city corporations in Dhaka and Chittagong in Tuesday’s elections amid allegations of massive irregularities.

Unofficial results show Annisul is winning Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) polls, while Sayeed Khokon victorious in Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and AJM Nasir Uddin in Chittagong City Corporation (CCC).

The BNP-backed candidates decided to boycott the election on Tuesday after numerous allegations of vote forgery and other irregularities surfaced.

In DNCC, Annisul secured 4,60,117 votes while his main opponent Tabith Awal got 3,25,080 votes, according to results received from all the 1093 centers.

Less than 40% votes were casted in DNCC, said returning officer Shah Alam.

In DSCC, Sayeed Khokon polled 5,35,296 votes while Mirza Abbasa received 2,94,291 votes, according to results received from the 886 centers out of 889. Voting at the three remaining centers were suspended due to chaos. As Khokon was leading by a large margin, returning officer Mihir Sarwar Morshed declared him the winner without including the votes of those three centers.

In Chittagong, Nasir has been unofficially declared the mayor of the port city.

He secured 4,75,361 votes while his opponent, the BNP-backed Manjur Alam bagged  3,04,837 votes, according to results received from all the 719 centers.

Returning officer Abdul Baten on Wednesday morning announced the results at the makeshift control room of the Election Commission set up in the gymnasium of MA Aziz stadium in the port city.

Manjur Alam boycotted the poll and declared his retirement from politics on Tuesday.