Shawdesh desk:

Awami League candidate Arfanul Haque Rifat was unofficially elected mayor of Cumilla City Corporation, conquering the stronghold of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in a close contest.

Rifat defeated Monirul Hoque Sakku, a BNP leader who was expelled from the party for contesting the polls ignoring the party decision, by only 343 votes in the polls held on Wednesday in a free, fair and peaceful manner.

He bagged 50,310 votes while Sakku polled 49,967.

Talking to reporters at district Shilpakala Academy soon after the announcement of the results, Sakku rejected the results.

Earlier, voting was held peacefully from 8:00am to 4:00pm amid reports of technical glitches in electronic voting machines (EVMs) in a couple of centres and slow pace.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal told reporters at the Election Commission Secretariat at Agargaon in the capital that around 60 percent vote was cast in the city polls.

“Voting in Cumilla City Corporation was held peacefully without any massive irregularities or violence. No unwanted incident was reported during the polls,” he said.

The presence of voters in polling centres was low in the morning due to rain in the city areas but the turnout started to increase later.

People were seen standing in long queues at different polling stations due to slow voting for problems in using EVMs.

Voting was delayed by 41 minutes at Cumilla High School polling centre under Ward No. 5 after an EVM stopped working. Voting resumed after the machine was replaced with another one.

Mobile courts jailed 10 people for different terms for their alleged bid to create chaos during the voting.

The punitive action was taken against them as they were involved in the bid to create a chaotic situation during the election, said Deputy Commissioner of the district Quamrul Hassan said.

The authorities detained eight people, mostly outsiders, from two polling stations for trying to cast fake votes and breaching electoral code of conduct and one of them was jailed for three months, officials said.

Three people were arrested at Modern Primary School polling centre and one of them was jailed by a mobile court for breaching the election law, said Shahadat Hossain additional magistrate of Cumilla district administration.

He said the authorities also detained five other people from Sangraish Primary School polling centre for breaching the law.

Sakku, the immediate past mayor of the city corporation, cast his vote at Hossamia High School centre around 9:00am.

Talking to reporters after exercising his franchise, he expressed his hope about victory if the election was held in a free and fair manner.

AL contestant Rifat cast his vote at Cumilla Victoria Collegiate High School centre around 9:15am.

He expressed satisfaction over the overall election environment.

Kaiser, an independent candidate, and local MP AKM Bahauddin Bahar also cast their vote at Cumilla Victoria Collegiate High School centre.

A total of five candidates contested the polls for mayoral post while 36 for reserve councillor posts and 106 for councillor posts.

It was the third election of the Cumilla City Corporation after its formation in 2011.

The last election was held on Mar 30, 2017 when Sakku was reelected mayor for the second term defeating Anjum Sultana Sima.

In 2012, Sakku defeated veteran Awami League leader Afzal Khan, also Sima’s father, by over 30,000 votes in the first election in the civic body.

Meanwhile, elections in five municipalities, one upazila parishad and 132 union parishads and by-polls in three upazila parishads, 47 union parishads were also held on the day.