Staff Reporter :
BNP leader Shahadat Hossain is likely to take the oath as the mayor of Chattogram City Corporation next Monday, as he faces no further legal obstacles.
The Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development, and Co-operatives issued a revised notification on Thursday (17 October), excluding ‘Chattogram’ from a previous notification issued on 19 August, which had removed all mayors of city corporations.
The revised notification states that preparations are underway for the oath-taking ceremony next Monday.
Chattogram City Corporation Chief Executive Officer Sheikh Muhammad Tauhidul Islam confirmed, “The notification regarding the removal of the mayors of the city corporations has been amended. The oath ceremony may take place next Monday.”
Earlier, on 1 October, a Chattogram court declared Shahadat Hossain the mayor-elect of Chattogram City Corporation after he filed a lawsuit seeking the cancellation of the election results due to alleged “vote rigging.”
The Electoral Tribunal court and Joint District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Khairul Amin also ordered the Election Commission to publish a gazette notification in this regard within 10 days. On 8 October, the Election Commission issued a gazette notification declaring Shahadat Hossain as the mayor of Chattogram City Corporation.
Shahadat had filed the lawsuit against the Election Commission and nine other defendants on 24 February 2021, during the Chattogram City Corporation election.
In his lawsuit, he alleged election rigging and sought the cancellation of the results. The defendants included the recently removed Chattogram mayor, M Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, the regional election officer, the secretary to the election commissioner, and the chief election commissioner, among others.
The case documents stated that Chattogram City Corporation officials began coordinating with Rezaul Karim immediately after the allocation of the “boat” symbol.
“This suggests that election day was merely a formality. For this reason, the vote tally has still not been provided. No printed copies from the EVMs were distributed from any polling station,” the documents read.
“By the afternoon of election day, only 4-6% of votes had been cast. However, the election results showed that 22% of the votes had been cast,” the documents added.
According to the official election results, “boat” candidate Rezaul Karim Chowdhury won with 369,248 votes in the election held on 27 January 2021. His closest competitor, BNP mayoral candidate Shahadat Hossain, received 52,489 votes under the “sheaf of paddy” symbol.