Campaigns for Ctg city polls in full swing until midnight on Monday

Last-minute campaign is going on in the Chittagong city for the upcoming mayoral election on January 27.

Candidates in the race are allowed to run campaigns until 12:00midnight on Monday. To ensure the best use of the time left, BNP-nominated mayoral candidate Dr Shahadat Hossain has been going from door to door to seek votes.

To win the race, Dr Shahadat and his party activists have remained active even after, as he and his party said, attacks on their rallies by activists of the ruling Awami League, filing of cases against them and police harassment. The mayoral candidate was seen paying visits to city residents by foot on Sunday .

"Our victory is inevitable if the election remains free and fair," said Abul Hashem Bakkar, BNP's chief secretary for the mayoral election and member secretary of the city unit of BNP.

The opposition party demands that the law enforcement agencies help maintain an environment on the election day for people to cast votes freely at all polling stations, he added.

Meanwhile, Awami League-nominated mayoral candidate Rezaul Karim Chowdhury wrapped up campaigns for the election three days prior.

Now university teachers, film actors and actresses, leaders and activists of the central Awami League and heads of various professional organisations are campaigning to drum up support for Rezaul Karim.

Celebrities including Apu Biswas, Mahiya Mahi, Bijori Barkatullah and Sadik Md Saiman participated in a rally on Sunday from the Chittagong Press Club for "boat", the election symbol of the ruling party.

AL candidate Rezaul Karim held meetings with senior party leaders over the last two days to sketch out plans for the election day.

He is hopeful of his victory.

Rezaul Karim said, "Leaders and activists of our party have been working day and night for the party, for the symbol."

He said his party members had completed campaigning ahead of time and now they were counting days to win the polls.

It is to be noted that the Chittagong City Corporation election was delayed for the pandemic. Instead of ballots, people will cast votes through electronic voting machines.

Seven people are contesting the mayoral seat and 171 people vying for the councillor seats in 41 wards. Fifty-seven women will compete against 14 reserved councillor seats.

The total number of voters is 19.51 lakh and the total number of polling stations is 735.