Annisul, Khokon win Dhaka city polls

Awami League-backed candidates Annisul Huq and Sayeed Khokon were unofficially declared the mayors of Dhaka North and Dhaka South city corporations, early today.

The elections however were boycotted by BNP-endorsed candidates amid rigging, violence and intimidation.

Annisul polled 460,117 votes while his BNP-backed contender Tabith Awal got 325,080 in all 1093 centres in the DNCC.

Tabith announced the boycott around four hours after the start of voting, bringing allegations of stuffing of ballots by the ruling party men for his contender Annisul.

DSCC ruling party-backed candidate Khokon bagged 535,296 votes while BNP-backed mayoral candidate Mirza Abbas got 294,291 in 886 voting centers out of a total 889.

Returning Officer Mihir Sarwar Morshed said 48.57 percent of the votes casted in the DSCC elections were marred by rigging, violence and intimidation by the ruling party men for the AL-backed mayor candidate.

Mirza Abbas’s wife Afroza Abbas announced boycott on behalf of her husband a little more than four hours after the start of voting, brining similar allegations of stuffing ballots by the ruling party men for his contender Khokon.

The counting of the votes casted in the three city corporation elections began shortly after the polling ended at 4:00pm.

The polls started at 8:00am and continued without any break.