AL-backed candidate Rifat wins Cumilla city polls by 343 votes

Awami League backed candidate Arfanul Haque Rifat has won the mayoral race as results from the vote count in the Cumilla City Corporation election was revealed just moments back.

Rifat, under the symbol "boat", secured 50,310 votes going on to win against independent candidate Monirul Haque Sakku, who secured 49,967 votes under the "table clock" symbol, according to the voting results of 105 centres announced by Returning Officer Shahedunnabi Chowdhury.

The returning officer started announcing the vote count from the Cumilla Shilpakala Academy at 4:00pm this afternoon.

The voter turnout was estimated to be around 60 percent in the Cumilla City Corporation election today, said Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal.

There are 229,920 voters in the Cumilla City Corporation election. Of them, 117,092 are women, 112, 826 men and two are of the third gender community.

Voting began at 8:00am and ended peacefully at 4:00pm without reports of any untoward incident.

A total of five candidates were vying for the mayoral post, 106 for councillor post and 36 for the post of reserved seats for women councillors.

The election was held through Electronic Voting Machines at 105 centres under 27 wards.

The results announcement of Cumilla City Corporation elections remained suspended for some time following chaos at the office of returning officer this evening.

Witnesses said the chaos ensued around 9:30pm when supporters of Arfanul Haque Rifat suddenly entered the Cumilla Shilpakala Academy and started chanting slogans.

They also tried to attack independent candidate Monirul Haque Sakku during that time as he was present there during the vote counting, they said. Later, police charged batons to disperse them.