Ivy again
Selina Hayat Ivy has won a landslide victory to retake mayoral office in a peaceful election to the Narayanganj City Corporation held amid tight security and much enthusiasm yesterday.
Ivy, the ruling Awami League candidate, bagged 1,75,611 votes, beating her nearest rival BNP's Shakhawat Hossain Khan by 79,567 votes. Shakhawat got 96,044 votes, according to unofficial results announced by the returning officer (RO) last night.
Voters' turnout was 62.33pc, said Nuruzzaman Talukder, the RO. Ivy had won the maiden NCC mayoral polls in October 2011 by defeating the AL-backed candidate Shamim Osman with a margin of more than one lakh votes.
Ivy, the then vice-president of Narayanganj city AL, did not get her party's support in that election.
So her win was considered a repeat of history. Her father Ali Ahmed Chunka, a popular labour leader, won the Narayanganj municipality chairman polls in 1974 without his own party AL's support.
This time Ivy contested the polls, held on party lines, as AL candidate and resigned as mayor to join the polls race.
After the results, Shakhawat alleged of “subtle rigging” and “manipulation of the elections results”. Earlier in the day, he said, “I will accept the results if the polls are held fairly till the end.”