The election commission unofficially announced Awami League (AL) candidate Arfanul Haque Rifat as the mayor of Cumilla City Corporation.
He won by 343 votes than his nearest competitor Monirul Islam Sakku, an independent candidate.
The election result was published at 9:30pm on Wednesday at Shilpakala Academy in which Arfanul Haque secured 50,310 votes in 105 centres while Monirul bagged 49,967.
However, Monirul Haque rejected the result claiming he was defeated premeditatedly halting the result of a handful of centres at the last stage of announcing election results.
The voting of the election started at 8:00am on Wednesday and ended at 4:00pm.
Two candidates—Monirul Haque and Arfanul Haque—were in high contest until the election result was reportedly marred by chaos around 9:15pm, a time when the result announcement was suspended.
At that time, the returning officer announced that they need more time to announce the name of the elected mayor as they haven’t received the results of the remaining four to five centres.
A group of leaders and activists of Monirul Haque protested the announcement immediately and started chanting slogans in favour of Monirul that triggered chaos in the returning officer's room.
At that time, Monirul was in the room and said he will not leave the place if the result is not published.
Then, a section of leaders and activists of Arfanul Haque came to the Shipakala Academy premises and got into an argument with police.
Following the incident, the result was halted. After a little while, Arfanul Haque was announced as new mayor for Cumilla City Corporation.