A woman casts her vote using the newly-launched electronic voting machine (EVM) at a polling centre in Rangpur City Corporation elections on Thursday. — bdnews24.com Jatiya Party was closing in on a landslide victory in the mayoral race of the Rangpur City Corporation polls when this report was filed at 10:15pm on Thursday.
According to the unofficial results of 133 out of the total 193 polling centres, HM Ershad-led Jatiya Party's Mostafizar Rahman Mostafa bagged 117,540 votes, ruling Awami League's Sharfuddin Ahmed Jhantu got 45,133 votes and BNP candidate Kawsar Zaman Babla obtained 25,000 votes.
The results were being announced from the control room set up in the northern city's Police Community Hall.
Awami League conceded defeat while BNP rejected the election results outright.
Besides the seven mayoral candidates, a total of 211 candidates are vying for 33 posts of general ward councillors while 65 are fighting for the posts of councillors in 11 reserved wards. The city has a total 393,894 voters - 196,256 male and 197,638 female.
Although the turnout was 46 per cent voters till the afternoon, returning officer Subhash Chandra Sarker said nearly 70 per cent voters cast their votes.
Earlier, chief election commissioner KM Nurul Huda at a news briefing in Dhaka said the commission was 'satisfied' as the voting was 'fair' and held in a festive mood. The Awami League and Jatiya Party were satisfied although BNP alleged the two allies 'engineered the election as part of a bigger conspiracy'.
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