A total of 268 ward councillor candidates withdrew their candidatures on Thursday, the last day of the withdrawal of candidature in elections of two city corporations in capital Dhaka. Of them, 236 candidates withdrew their candidatures for 129 general Ward Councillor posts and 32 women for the 43 reserved seats.
Besides, formal campaigning by the candidates will start today (Friday) following the distribution of symbols among them by the Election Commission (EC). Elections in Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) are scheduled for January 30. Election will be held in two Mayoral posts, 129 General Ward Councillors’ posts and 43 reserved seats for women. Of them, there are 75 general Wards in the DSCC and 25 reserved seats for women while 54 general Wards in the DNCC with 18 reserved seats for women.
According to the EC officials, a total of 125 valid general Ward Councillor candidates of DSCC withdrew their candidature while 20 women from the women’s reserved seats. Now the number of candidates for the 75 general Ward Councillor posts in the DSCC is 335 and the number of candidates in the 25 reserved seats is 82.
Besides, a total of 111 candidates in the 54 general Ward Councillors’ posts withdrew their candidatures and 12 women from the 18 reserved seats. Now the number of general Ward Councillor candidates in DNCC is 251 and the number of women in 18 reserved seats is 77.
According to the EC official sources, a total of 13 valid candidates are contesting for the two Mayoral posts while 745 valid others for the 172 Ward Councillor posts. Seven valid candidates in the DSCC Mayoral election are Fazle Nur Taposh of Awami League, Ishraque Hossain of BNP, Mohammad Saifuddin Ahmed Milon of Jatiyaparty, Md Abdur Rahman of Islami Andolan, Bahran-e-Sultan Bahar of NPP, Md Akteruzzaman alias Ayatullah of Bangladesh Congress and Abdus Samad Sujon of Gono Front.
Besides, six DNCC Mayoral candidates are incumbent DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam of Awami League, Tabith Awal of BNP, Sajedul Huq of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), Shahin Khan of PDP, Fazle Bari Masud of Islami Andolan and Anisur Rahman Dewan of NPP. Earlier, a total of 14 candidates had submitted their nominations for the two mayoral posts, but candidature of one of them, Brig. Gen Qamrul Islam, has been cancelled by the election commission as Qamrul is not a voter of the DNCC area.
According to the EC, there are around 54 lakh voters in two city corporations. Of them, 30.36 lakh under 54 wards in DNCC and 23.67 lakh under 75 wards in DSCC. In the upcoming elections, the number of possible polling stations will be 2,500 in the two cities.