The incumbent mayor Awami League candidate Selina Hayat Ivy won the much-hyped Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) polls held yesterday beating her prime rival BNP’s Advocate Shakhawat Hossain Khan by a huge margin. Returning Officer Nuruzzaman Talukdar announced the results while talking to reporters at his makeshift office at Narayanganj Club around 11:20pm.
According to the unofficial results, Ivy bagged 175,611 votes while Shakhawat got 96,044 votes in the polls held in a free, fair and peaceful manner, barring allegations of voter intimidation by Awami League (AL) leaders and activists. The returning officer also said the voter turnout in the election was 62.33 per cent.
Most voters and residents of Narayanganj city told The Independent that they voted in favour of their respective candidates peacefully and without any intimidation. Correspondents of The Independent visited at least 40 polling stations in the city. They did not find any irregularities, but noticed a low presence of voters at most of the polling stations.
Meanwhile, BNP-backed candidates secured more councillors’ posts than the candidates of its arch rival, the ruling Awami League. In the polls, BNP-backed councillor candidates won in 12
wards, AL-backed candidates
garnered victories in 11 wards, while Jatiya Party-backed candidates won three. The Socialist Party of Bangladesh-backed candidate picked up one ward amongst 27.
Earlier, both Ivy and Shakhawat cast their votes in favour of their respective party symbols yesterday morning. Talking to reporters after casting their votes, they both expressed a strong confidence of victory.
After casting her vote, Ivy told reporters that the elections were being held in a free, fair and peaceful manner. “People are casting votes in a festive mood. All the law enforcers are active,” she said.
After casting her vote, the ruling party’s candidate visited several polling stations.
Shakhawat, however, alleged that ruling party leaders and activists barred his supporters and voters from visiting polling stations at some places. “The voting is mostly going on peacefully. If this continues, I'll secure victory in the NCC poll,” he said. The ruling AL lawmaker in Narayanganj, Shamim Osman, cast his vote in favour of the boat symbol. He cast his vote at the Narayanganj Bar Academy polling centre in Ward 12 around 2:30pm. He collected the ballot paper from the polling officer and cast his vote for AL mayoral candidate Ivy in front of others. He did not enter the designated place for voting, which allegedly violated the electoral code of conduct.  Juthi, a female voter of the city, told this correspondent that she cast her vote in favour of her candidate without any intimidation. “I'm very happy to be able to cast my vote for the first time in a peaceful atmosphere,” she said.
Rahul, another voter of the city, told this correspondent that they were very happy with the existing law and order situation in the city, as maintained by the Narayanganj district administration and the Election Commission (EC). Hossain Ahmed, presiding officer of the Tolaram College polling station, told the reporter that voting was being held peacefully at his centre. “At least 50 per cent votes have been cast in my centre till 2pm,” he said.
Voters irrespective of profession, gender and age group have expressed their satisfactions over holding the Narayanganj City Corporation polls in a free, fair and peaceful manner. New voters cast their votes with much enthusiasm as they franchised their voting rights for the first time while elderly voters were also found to cast their votes taking assistance from others.
Some of the voters said they never before saw the holding of such a free and fair election.
Polling agents of the boat and the sheaf of paddy, the electoral symbol of the ruling Awami League and the BNP, were seen absent in some booths. Presiding officers of those polling stations said the candidates did not field agents there. No candidate brought any allegation over the absence of their agents in a number of polling booths at different polling stations in the city.
Visiting polling stations in different areas in Shiddhirganj and Bandar upazilas and Narayanganj Sadar, these correspondents found long queues in front of the polling centres in the morning. The number of voters in queue thinned down in the afternoon.
However, some voters said the turnout in the polling centres was lower compared to the previous elections.
During the first one hour, about 20 votes were cast in each polling booths at Ali Akbar Model High School at Naya-Ati  Rasulpur under ward 3 in Shiddirganj after the polling began at 8:00am. No agent for the sheaf of paddy symbol was found in booth number 7. About 20 per cent votes were cast in six polling booths at Haji Shamsuddin High School at Painadi in Shiddhirganj in the first two hours, said Presiding Officer Uttam Kumar Roy. Polashi and Nasima, both new voters, were standing in a queque at  Mijmiji Painadi  Rekmot Ali High School polling station in the morning. They said they felt happy to get the chance to exercise their voting rights for the first time. One Nazimuddin, who had lost his eyesight, cast his vote at the centre with the help of a relative. Returning Officer Nuruzzaman Talukder, who was visiting the station, said the election was being held in a free and fair manner.
According to the unofficial results of the returning officer's office regarding the councillors’ posts, Omar Faruk of the AL at Ward 1, Iqbal Hossain of the BNP at Ward 2, Shahajalal Badal of the AL at Ward 3, Ariful Haque Hasan of the AL at Ward 4, Golam M Sadril of the BNP at Ward 5, Matiur Rahman of the AL at Ward 6, Ali Hossain Alal of the AL at Ward 7, Ruhul Alam of the AL at Ward 8, M Israfil of the BNP at Ward 9, Eftekhar Alam of the AL at Ward 10, Zamsher Alam of the BNP at Ward 11, Shawkat Hasem of the BNP at Ward 12, Makshudul Alam Khandakar Khorshed of the BNP at Ward 13, Safiuddin Pradhon of the JP at Ward 14, Asit Barun Biswas of the SPB at Ward 15, Nazmul Alam Sajal of the AL at Ward 16, Abdul Karim of the AL at Ward 17, Kabir Hossain of the AL at Ward 18, Faysal M Sagar of the AL at Ward 19, Golam Nabi Murad of the BNP at Ward 20, Hanan Sarkar of the BNP at Ward 21, Sultan Ahmad of the BNP at Ward 21, Dulal Pradhan of the JP at Ward 23, Afzal Hossain of the JP at Ward 24, Enayat Hossain of the BNP at Ward 25, Samsuzjoha of the BNP at Ward 26 and Kamaruzzaman Babul of the BNP at Ward 27 won.  The officials said a total of 156 councillor candidates contested the polls.
The EC deployed about 9,500 law enforcement personnel from the police, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Coast Guard and Ansar to maintain law and order in the city. Earlier, a total of 22 platoons of the BGB had been deployed in Narayanganj. The BGB will remain in the field till Friday.
A total of seven mayoral aspirants from different political parties, including the ruling AL and the BNP, contested the civic polls. Candidates of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Bangladesh Kalyan Party dropped out of the mayoral race and extended their support to the BNP candidate. The Jatiya Party extended its support to AL candidate Dr Selina Hayat Ivy just two days before the polling day.
According to the EC, nearly 4.74 lakh voters cast their votes at 174 centres to elect a mayor, 27 councillors and nine reserved seats for female councillors.
There were 2,39,662 male and 2,35,269 female voters in the polls. Voting started from 8am and continued till 4pm without any break. Counting of votes was going on at the time of the filing of this report at 5:30pm.
The maiden election to the NCC was held on October 30, 2011, when Selina Hayat Ivy won the race, defeating AL-backed candidate Shamim Osman.
NCC polls free, fair and credible
Chief election commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad yesterday said the Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) poll was held in a free, fair and credible manner as the candidates and their supporters extended their cooperation. “The area under the NCC was rather small. A large contingent of law enforcers were deployed there. Besides the candidates extended their cooperation to hold a free and fair poll,” he said.
The CEC said this at a press conference at the media centre of the EC Secretariat in the capital.
He also said elaborate security measures were taken so that voters could cast their votes without any intimidation. “The NCC poll has been held in a peaceful manner without any undesirable incident. By Allah, there was no fighting. We didn't get any allegations from any political party and candidates,” he added.
The CEC said there would not be any chaos if the candidates accepted the verdict of the people. “We hope that the candidates in other elections would also accept the results of the elections in future,” he added. He further said that three persons were fined Tk. 8,000 each for violating the electoral code of conduct.