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POLLS-CITY-DHAKA-RESULTS-LEAD
AL nominees sweep Dhaka city polls
DHAKA, Feb 2, 2020 (BSS) – Awami League candidates Atiqul Islam and
Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh today swept the elections as residents of
the capital elected their mayors to hold the offices of Dhaka North City
Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) for next five
years.
Respective returning officers unofficially declared them elected after
the daylong voting with electronic voting machines (EVMs), used entirely for
the first time in any major election, while the formal results would be
published later through gazette notifications.
AL nominee for DNCC Atiqul Islam bagged 4,47,211 votes defeating his
nearest contestant Tabith Awal who secured 2,64,161 votes while AL candidate
for DSCC Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh bagged 4,24,595 votes defeating his nearest
BNP contestant Ishraq Hossain who secured 2,36,512 votes.
Returning Officers of DNCC and DSCC Md Abul Kashem and Md Abdul Baten
declared separately the results of all 2,468 polling centers for polls at
their respective makeshift offices at Shilpakala Academy and Sher-e-Bangla
Agriculture University in the city.
Earlier, the voting began at 8am and it continued till 4pm without any
break. The polls were held in a festive and peaceful manner as no major
untoward incident took place in the polls.
The voters also expressed satisfaction over the use of EVMs in the polls
though some senior citizens faced a little trouble in matching finger prints
during casting their votes.
Prime Minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina cast her vote at
Dhaka College Centre here in the morning.
While talking to reporters after casting her vote, she expressed her
firm optimism about the victory of Awami League candidates in the Dhaka city
corporation elections.
AL nominee for DNCC polls Atiqual Islam cast his vote at 8:15am at Nawab
Habibullah Model School and College polling centre in Uttara while BNP
contestant Tabith Awal cast his vote at the polling centre of Gulshan Manarat
International School and College in the morning.
AL candidate for DSCC polls Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh cast his
vote at Dhanmondi Kamrunnessa Government Girls’ High School while BNP
candidate Ishraq Hossain cast his vote at Shaheed Shahjahan Government
Primary School polling centre at Gopibagh in the morning.
Earlier, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda said he was
satisfied with the overall election atmosphere as voters were positive about
the EVMs.
“The overall environment for the election is peaceful . . . I am
satisfied. Voters are positive about the EVM,” said the CEC while talking to
journalists after casting his vote at 11:05am at the polling centre of I.E.S
School and College of Sector-5, Uttara.
Marking the polls, motorcycle movement remain stopped since Thursday
midnight and the bar will stay till 6am on February 2 while all kinds of
vehicular movement remain stopped from Friday midnight to 6pm on Saturday.
Besides, plying of water vessels also remain stopped from Friday
midnight to Saturday midnight.
Around 50,000 members of law enforcement agencies were deployed in the
two city corporations to ensure the security.
A total of 129 executive magistrates and 64 judicial magistrates were
deployed in the two city corporations.
A total of 1013 local observers of 22 institutions monitored the polls
while 74 persons acted as foreign observers.
A total of 13 mayoral candidates contested the Dhaka north and south
city corporation elections while around 7500 candidates vied for councilor
posts in the two city corporations.
In Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), there were 30 lakh 10 thousand
273 voters. Of the voters, 15, 49,567 were male and 14, 60,706 were female.
DNCC has 1,318 polling centers while there are 54 general and 18
reserved (women) wards in the city corporation.
In DSCC, there were 1,150 polling centers for 24 lakh 53 thousand 194
voters. Of them, 12 lakh 93 thousand 441 were male and 11 lakh 59 thousand
753 were female.
DSCC has 1,150 polling centers while it has 75 general and 25 reserved
wards.
BSS/ASG/CORR/MAR/MSH/MKD/SRH/TAN/FI/0900 hrs