Bangladesh
Comilla City Polls Comilla City polls: Awami League's Rifat breaks Sakku's win streak by a narrow margin
Own Correspondent, Dhaka, June 16: Beating two-time Comilla Mayor Monirul Haque Sakku, Boat candidate Arfanul Haque Rifat has won the Comilla City mayoral race by a narrow margin of 343 votes.
On Wednesday (June 15) night, Returning Officer Md. Shahedunnabi Chowdhury announced the name of the winning candidate after counting the votes. He said fair and neutral elections were conducted. Voters went to the centres and peacefully voted for the candidate of their choice.
Arfanul Haque Rifat bagged 50,310 votes in the election, while his nearest rival candidate Monirul Haque Sakku polled 49,967.
Earlier, polling was held in 640 booths of 105 centres of the city corporation from 8 am. One hundred and six candidates took part in the election for the post of councilors and 36 candidates for the post of reserved women councilors. Two lakh 29 thousand 920 voters exercised their voting right in the election. Of them, one lakh 17 thousand 92 were female voters and one lakh 12 thousand 826 were male voters. There were two third gender voters as well.
Meanwhile, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal said that Comilla City Corporation (COCC) election was fair and peaceful.
The CEC said, "Overall, the polling in Comilla City has been fair and peaceful. No such complaint was received from the voters. In this city (Comilla) about 60 percent votes have been cast. We did not receive any negative comments."
The CEC made the remarks at a briefing on the Comilla City Corporation elections at the Election Commission building in the capital's Agargaon on Wednesday (June 15) afternoon.
Responding to a question about the allegations of slow voting, the Chief Election Commissioner said, "Electronic voting machines (EVMs) were not slow. Those who were older voters, they had a little problem with this. Those who were not accustomed to EVM voting, it took time to understand. Those who are accustomed to EVM, have understood that voting took 15 to 30 seconds. Some say they have had a bit of trouble with EVMs. We have noticed that for those who are a little older, there have been difficulties for individuals. In general, the vote has been better through EVM."
