Sylhet City Polls: Repolling to decide fate of Ariful today

Re-polling at two centres will be held today to determine the mayor of Sylhet City Corporation as voting was cancelled there following anomalies and irregularities during the polls on July 30.

The centres are Gazi Borhan Uddin Garam Dewan Govt Primary School of Ward-24 and Habinandi Govt Primary School of Ward-27.

BNP candidate Ariful Haque Choudhury leads the mayoral race with 90,496 votes, while his rival ruling Awami League candidate Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran got 85,870 votes. Difference between their votes is 4,626 with the two centres having 4,787 registered voters.

For a mere margin of 161 votes, the final result was postponed by the Election Commission after declaring results of 132 out of total 134 centres.

The posts of two general councillors and two reserved female councillors of the reserved Ward-8 (general 22, 23, 24) and Ward-9 (general 25, 26, 27) will also be determined through the polls today.

Moreover, votes at 14 centres will be taken today for the reserved female councillor post of Ward-7 (general 19, 20, 21) which was tied between two candidates.

Alimuzzaman, returning officer of Sylhet city polls, said they have taken all preparations and expressed the hope for peaceful voting.

The BNP candidate on Thursday met the chief election commissioner at the EC in Dhaka to update him about the anomalies during the July 30 polls and requested him to keep a close watch on the two centres today.

He said the number of deceased and expatriate voters at those two centres is more than 300. He claimed he would undoubtedly win if fake vote was not cast.

On the other side, AL candidate Kamran claimed the EC should have retaken polls at 17 centres.