The ruling Awami League's (AL) contestant Atiqul Islam has been unofficially declared the mayor-elect of the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) by-polls, bagging the lion's share of the votes cast.
The AL candidate got 839,302 votes, while his nearest competitor Jatiya Party-backed 'Miles Band' singer Shafin Ahmed bagged 52,429 votes. The turnout of voters was 31.05 per cent only.
Returning officer Abul Kashem announced the results of all 1,295 polling stations of DNCC by-polls at around 1:30am from the election result dissemination centre at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in the capital.
The total number of voters in DNCC was 3,035,621, of which 1,563,530 were male and 1,472,091 were female.
The by-election to the DNCC mayoral post and polls to councillor posts in its 18 new wards and 18 other new wards of the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) began at 8:00 am and ended at 4:00 pm without any break on Thursday.
A total of five candidates contested in the by-polls for the DNCC mayoral post, which has been vacant since the demise of Annisul Huq on November 30, 2017. He was elected mayor on April 28, 2015.
Apart from Atiqul and Shafin, other three mayoral contestants were National People's Party's (NPP) Anisur Rahman, Progressive Democratic Party's (PDP) Shahin Khan, and independent candidate Abdur Rahim. Among them, the independent candidate Rahim got 14,040 votes, NPP's Anisur bagged 8,695 votes and PDP candidate Shahin got 8,560 votes.
However, some major political parties, including Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jatiya Oikya Front (JOF), did not give any candidate for the by-polls.
Meanwhile, newly-elected mayor, in his immediate response after winning the election, told the media that his priority would be reducing the mosquito menace in the city, battling against drug and renovating roads in the north city.
He also said that he would continue executing the plans of late mayor Annisul Huq.
Mr Atiqul will appear before the media formally at a press conference this (Saturday) noon at Bangladesh Club in the city's Uttara area.
ahb_mcj2009@yahoo.com