Published: 01:25 AM, 28 December 2022 Last Update: 01:33 AM, 28 December 2022
Rangpur City Polls: JP leads race, AL trails from fourth
The Election Commission ended the mayoral elections for Rangpur City Corporation four hours behind schedule as polling officials struggled to operate the electronic voting machines leading to long queues of voters on Tuesday.
Jatiya Party mayoral candidate Mostafizur Rahman Mostafa was leading the race with 59,255 votes from 100 out of 229 centres until 9:00pm, according to results provided by the returning officer.
His nearest contestant was Islami Andolon Bangladesh’s Amiruzzaman with 21,196 votes. Independent Latiful Rahman got 14,481 votes and the ruling Awami League’s Hosne Ara Lutfa Dalia got 9,825 votes.
Many voters returned home as their fingerprints did not match the EVM, and many of the EVMs were out of order in many polling centres, witnesses said.
Chief election commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal said in Dhaka that the reasons for the delay in taking votes in the mayoral polls were high voter turnout and the mismatch of many people’s fingerprints.
Voting continued at many polling stations until 8:30pm while it was scheduled to end at 4:30pm.
Returning officer Abdul Baten said that voting continued at a few polling centres as voters arrived at 4:30pm.
The electoral law requires the polling officer to allow voters to cast their votes if they arrive at the polling station by the scheduled time.
Many voters complained that they had faced huge obstacles to casting votes due to EVMs, while others returned home without exercising their voting rights.
