Talukder Khalek wins KCC mayoral race again

Staff Correspondent, Khulna: The ruling Awami League (AL) candidate Talukder Abdul Khalek has won the mayoral race of Khulna City Corporation (KCC) again.

Returning officer Yunus Ali unofficially declared him as new KCC mayor around 9:30pm on Tuesday.

Khalek won the election with a big margin bagging 176,902 votes while his nearest rival Nazurl Islam Manju of BNP polled 108,956 in 286 election centres out of total 289.

The voting was suspended in the remaining three centres due to violence, capturing of polling stations and forced stuffing.

Earlier, the balloting in the KCC election was held amid allegations of capturing some polling stations, vote fraud and violence in some areas.

The voting began at 8:00am and ended at 4:00pm without any break.

A total of five mayoral candidates, 148 general councillor and 38 reserved-seat female councillor candidates were there in the election race.

The mayoral contenders were Awami League's Talukder Abdul Khalek, Nazrul Islam Manju of BNP, Jatiya Party's Shafiqur Rahman Mushfiq, IslamiAndolan Bangladesh's MaulanaMozammil Haque and CPB's Mizanur Rahman Babu.

risingbd/Khulna/May 15, 2018/Muhammad Nuruzzaman/A K Azad