CCC, the lifeline of economy

Chittagong City Corporation is the third largest among 11 city corporations in the country in terms of voters.

Dubbed as the commercial capital of Bangladesh, the port city has more than 18.13 lakh voters.

The CCC descended from the name of Chittagong Municipality, which was founded on June 22, 1863. The initial area of the newly formed municipality was only six square miles.

There were five wards at that time. Khan Bahadur Abdus Sattar was the first elected chairman of the municipality, according to the website of the CCC.

On June 27, 1977, Chittagong municipality was renamed Chittagong Paurashava and Fazal Karim was its first elected chairman.
The paurashava was upgraded to Municipal Corporation on September 16, 1982, and Brig Mofizur Rahman Chowdhury was appointed as its administrator.

The municipality was renamed Chittagong City Corporation on July 31, 1990, and the then government appointed Jatiya Party leader Mahmudul Islam Chowdhury as mayor.

BNP leader Mir Mohammed Nasiruddin ascended as mayor and continued until the first election in 1994.

Awami League leader ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury became the first democratically elected mayor of the CCC. He was re-elected in the next two consecutive elections held in 2000 and 2005.

However, M Manjur Alam was elected mayor with support from the BNP in the last city corporation polls held in 2010, defeating Mohiuddin.

Manjur is contesting today's election with his main contender AJM Nasir Uddin.