Voting peaceful in Chawkbazar ward of Chattogram
Nur Mostafa Tinu was elected councillor with 779 votes
Overcoming all fears, the by-elections for the Chattogram City Corporation's (CCC) Chawkbazar ward councillor position went smoothly.
Nur Mostafa Tinu was elected councillor of CCC's Chawkbazar ward No. 16, winning 779 votes while his closest rival, MD Abdur Rauf, got 776 votes. Md Ali Akbar Chowdhury secured third position with 635 votes.
Chattogram District Additional Election Officer Kamrul Alam announced the results unofficially around 7:30pm on Thursday. Voting at 15 EVM centres continued from 8am to 4pm.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
The total number of voters in Chawkbazar ward is 32,041. Of them, 6,855 people voted, a little more than 21% of all voters in the ward.
Notably, there are three cases against councillor-elect, Nur Mostafa Tinu, filed for the illegal possession of a weapon, and attempted murder. In September 2019, Tinu and one of his followers were apprehended by Rab and six rounds of ammunition and foreign shotguns were later recovered from his house. The Rab filed a case with Panchlaish police station under the Arms Act. Earlier, in 2003, the city detective police arrested Tinu with a state-of-the-art Chinese AK-22 rifle and magazine.
However, despite all fears about the election, voting took place peacefully throughout the day. Visiting a number of polling centres, including Kapasgola Government Primary School, Kapasgola City Corporation Women's College, Gul-E-Zar Muslim City Corporation High School, Kazem Ali School and College, and Haji Mohammad Mohsin College in Chawkbazar ward of the city, TBS found that vote casting was not disturbed at any centre, though voter turnout was very low.
There were no voters at the Gul-E-Zar Muslim City Corporation High School centre and designated voting agents and male members were sitting and relaxing. At 12:30 pm, this correspondent visited the Kazem Ali School and College centre and saw some voters casting their votes, but there was no line. Masudur Rahman, presiding officer of the centre, said 13% of the votes were cast in the first three hours.
Syed Golam Haider Mintu was elected councillor of Chawkbazar ward No. 16 in the CCC elections held on 26 January this year. The councillor post of Chawkbazar ward was declared void after his death on 18 March last.
