A total of 7 mayors and 372 councilors are contesting in the final battle of Sylhet City Corporation elections. Sylhet City Corporation election will be held on June 21. Where a mayor, general councilors in 42 wards, and councilors in 14 reserved wards will be elected through voting.
Symbols were allotted among the candidates for the election on Friday. On Friday morning, from the office of the returning officer in Mendibagh, symbols were allocated among 7 candidates for the post of mayor, 273 candidates for the post of 42 general councilors, and 87 candidates for the post of 14 reserved councilors.
Awami League's Anwaruzzaman Chowdhury (boat), National Party's Nazrul Islam Babul (plough), Islami Andolan Bangladesh's Hafiz Maulana Mahmudul Hasan (hand fan), Zaker Party's Zahirul Alam (rose flower) have received symbols as party candidates for the post of mayor.
And among the independent candidates are Abdul Hanif Kutu (Horse), Chalah Uddin Rimon Cricket (Bat), and Shah Jahan Miah (Bus).
Returning Officer Faisal Quader distributed symbols among the candidates at the Sylhet Regional Election Officer's office from 10 am on Friday. Since the allotment of symbols, the campaign has officially started.
Meanwhile, the candidates embarked on formal campaigning soon after the allotment of symbols.
The candidates have started to inform by miking all over the city. In some wards, candidates hold marches and meetings with their workers and supporters. Motorcycle processions were held in several wards in support of the candidates.
After receiving the symbol, the nominated candidate of Awami League told reporters that he will campaign for the June 21 election in accordance with the code of conduct. The boat is a symbol of the development of the country. He expressed his hope that about five lakh voters of the Sylhet City Corporation area will win the boat by voting on this symbol.
National Party's mayoral candidate Nazrul Islam also said that campaigning should be carried out in accordance with the electoral code of conduct. He urged people to vote for the plow symbol to make Sylhet City a beautiful and planned city in the future. Later he also started campaigning by distributing leaflets in the Mendibagh and Shahjalal suburbs of the city.
Mahmudul Hasan, the mayoral candidate of the Islami Andolan Bangladesh, told the journalists that the development that has not happened in Sylhet City Corporation in the last 20 years, if he is elected, will develop it. At that time, if elected, he said that the holding tax will be reduced by 20 percent and initiatives will be taken to relieve traders from the hassle of getting trade licenses.
In the Sylhet city election, 11 people collected nominations for the post of mayor this time. Among them, the returning officer canceled the nomination of 5 mayoral candidates in the scrutinization on May 25. Later three of these five candidates appealed and the nomination of an independent candidate was declared valid. This increased the number of candidates for the post of mayor to seven.
Last Thursday was the last day for the withdrawal of nominations. At the scheduled time, 12 councilor candidates of the general ward withdrew from the election. None of the surviving mayoral and reserved ward candidates withdrew their nomination after the appeal.
In this year's city corporation election, the total number of voters in 42 wards is 4 lakh 86 thousand 605 people. Among them 2 lakh 53 thousand 763 men and 2 lakh 32 thousand 842 women. Total centers 190 and polling booths 1 thousand 364. After the establishment of Sylhet City Corporation in 2002, this is the first time that all the wards of Sylhet are voting through Electronic Voting Machine (EVM).
