Rezaul Karim elected CCC mayor

Awami League candidate Rezaul Karim Chowdhury has been unofficially elected as the mayor of Chittagong City Corporation after his landslide victory in CCC polls.

He defeated his nearest rival, BNP candidate Dr Shahadat Hossain, by a margin of 316,759 votes.

Returning Officer Hasanuzzaman announced the results from the temporary control room of the CCC Election Commission at the MA Aziz Stadium Gymnasium around 2:15 am early Thursday.

"436,543 of 19, 38,706 voters had cast their votes in the election and voter turnout was 22.52%," he added.

Rezaul Karim Chowdhury got 369,248 votes for the boat symbol while Dr Shahadat Hossain received 52,489 votes for sheaf of paddy.

Among other mayoral candidates, MA Matin of Bangladesh Islamic Front got 2126 votes with candle symbol, Abul Manzoor of National People's Party (NPP) got 4653 votes with mango symbol, Md Jannatul Islam of Islamic Andolon Bangladesh got 4,980 votes with hand fan symbol, Waheed Murad of Islamic Front Bangladesh got 1,109 votes with the chair symbol and Khokon Chowdhury got 885 votes with the elephant symbol as an independent candidate.

The election was held in a total of 733 centers although voting in two centers was postponed due to EVM vandalism.