A Chattogram court on Tuesday declared Bangladesh Nationalist Party鈥檚 Shahadat Hossain as the city mayor in a case challenging the results of the Chattogram City Corporation election held in 2021.
The court also ordered the publication of a gazette in this regard within the next 10 days.
Shahadat Hossain filed a lawsuit challenging the results of the 2021 city corporation polls in which the Election Commission declared his defeat, announcing Awami League candidate Rezaul Karim Chowdhury as the winner.
The verdict came at about noon from election tribunal judge and joint district and sessions judge Mohammad Khairul Amin, said the plaintiff鈥檚 counsel Arshad Hossain Asad.
The lawyer said that Shahadat Hossain had filed the case seeking the cancellation of the city corporation鈥檚 election results. Alongside the ruling, the court instructed that the gazette be issued within 10 days.
The Chattogram City Corporation election took place on January 27, 2021 in which Awami League leader Rezaul Karim Chowdhury was declared the winner.
But Shahadat, a physician and formerly president of the Chattogram metropolitan unit of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, rejected the election results and filed a lawsuit on February 24, 2021, accusing the Election Commission and nine others of rigging the election.
The defendants in the case include former Chattogram city mayor Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, regional election officer Md Hasanuzzaman, Election Commission secretary, chief election commissioner, and individuals named Abul Manjur, MA Matin, Khokon Chowdhury, Muhammad Wahid Murad, and Md Jannatul Islam.
Despite the legal challenge, Rezaul Karim assumed the post of mayor after the election.
On August 19, the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operative removed him from office following the ouster of the Awami League government.
Shahadat complained in the case that Chattogram city corporation officials already started coordinating with Rezaul Karim Chowdhury after he had received the Awami League鈥檚 boat symbol, suggesting that the election was merely a formality. According to the complaint, the vote tally was never finalised, and no electronic voting machine printouts were provided from any polling centres. On the election day, only 4鈥�6 per cent votes were counted by noon though official figures claimed that 22 per cent votes were cast.
In the city corporation election on January 27, 2021, Rezaul Karim was declared winner with 3,69,248 votes against his closest rival Shahadat who secured 52,489 votes with the BNP鈥檚 鈥榮heaf of paddy鈥� symbol.
Shahadat Hossain, also a former central BNP organising secretary, was nominated as the party鈥檚 mayoral candidate during its Parliamentary Board meeting on February 24, 2020.
After the August 5 fall of Sheikh Hasina amid a student-led mass uprising, 聽the Local Government Division on August 19 removed all the 12 city mayors, district council chairs and members, 493 upazila council chairs and vice-chairs, and 323 municipal mayors.聽
The government on the same day, in separate orders, appointed administrators to 61 district councils and all the city corporations.
