The Election Tribunal in Chattogram yesterday declared BNP's former port city unit president Dr Shahadat Hossain as the mayor of Chattogram City Corporation.

The court also ordered to publish a gazette notification in this regard within 10 days, said Shahadat's lawyer advocate Moin Uddin Hossain.

The court declared this in its verdict in a case filed by Shahadat on February 24, 2021, seeking cancellation of the result of CCC election held on January 27, 2021, claiming it to have been manipulated by Election Commission officials.

The then CCC mayor Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, returning officer Md Hasanuzzaman, chief election commissioner KM Nurul Huda, and six others were made accused in the case.

In the case statement, Shahadat also alleged that he was shown zero vote in three polling centres but after three days later he was shown zero vote in 28 polling centres which was "unbelievable and unimaginable".

The tribunal's judge Mohammad Khairul Amin, also the joint district and sessions judge in Chattogram, delivered the verdict around 12:00pm yesterday.

It is the first time in the country's history that the court cancelled the declaration of an elected candidate for breaching the election rules and laws, the lawyer claimed.

The court in its full verdict said, "Based on the evidence, the then Regional Election Officer, the Secretary of the Election Commission, the Chief Election Commissioner, along with the election agents of the defendants and the concerned individuals, have grossly violated the Local Government (City Corporation) Election Rules 2010, the City Corporation (Election Conduct) Rules 2016, and the City Corporation Election (Electronic Voting Machine) Rules 2019, in declaring Rezaul Karim Chowdhury as the elected candidate (in CCC election)."

"They destroyed the electoral system through fraudulence and unlawfully declared Rezaul Karim Chowdhury elected as per the gazette published on January 31, 2021, which is illegal, invalid, and baseless," the court added.