Ivy vows to deliver on her polls pledges

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Selina Hayat Ivy, the first Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) mayor, has vowed to deliver on her campaign pledges keeping people above party and taking her election rivals Shamim Osman and Taimur Alam Khandaker on board. In an interview with bdnews24.com after Sunday's landslide victory, Ivy said she would 'prioritise' developing roads, drainage and communication systems in the corporation area. "Like in the past I will serve people irrespective of political affiliation or opinions. There will be no exception." "I will try to implement the promises I made to people before the election taking brother Shamim and uncle Taimur into confidence." Daughter of Narayanganj's first municipality chairman Ali Ahmed Chunka, Ivy beat her nearest rival Awami League-backed candidate Shamim Osman by a margin of 101,343 votes. BNP-backed Taimur withdrew just even hours to the vote on party orders citing that fact that army was not deployed in Narayanganj as scheculed. "I'll work (to develop the city) following in the footsteps of my father's successors," a simple but confident Ivy said Monday. Ivy, vice-president of Awami League's Narayanganj City unit, refused to pull out from the election race when the party announced its tacit backing for Shamim. "People never make mistakes," she said commenting on her landslide victory. "The election results proved it. People have voted without fear." Her father won the election 37 years back without party support. A doctor by training Ivy immigrated to New Zealand along with her computer programmer husband in 1995. But she returned home during the regime of BNP-led four-party alliance and took part in the municipality election and defeated the then government-backed candidate by a huge margin.