Jatiya Party candidate Mostafizur Rahman Mostafa has won the mayoral election to Rangpur City Corporation in a crushing defeat for the ruling Awami League, whose nominee Hosne Ara Lutfa lost her deposit.
Mostafizur bagged 146,798 votes in the opposition party stronghold while his nearest candidate, Md Amiruzzaman of the Islami Andolan Bangladesh, polled 49,892 votes, according to unofficial results announced by Returning Officer Abdul Baten on Tuesday night.
Lutfa, who came fourth behind the Awami League’s rebel candidate Md Latifur Rahman, needed 35,122 votes to save her deposit after 280,972, or 60 percent of the voters turned up to cast their ballots through electronic voting machines or EVMs. She got 22,306 votes while Latifur won 33,883.
The Election Commission flagged 86 of the 229 polling stations in Rangpur City Corporation elections as vulnerable and used CCTV cameras to surveil them.
A total of 260 candidates, including nine for the mayoral post, 183 for the general councillor posts and 68 for the reserved councillor posts, were in the fray. A general councillor candidate was elected unopposed.