Dr. Selina Hayat Ivy, nominated by ruling Awami League, on Sunday registered a landslide hat-trick victory in the Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) election.
Ivy, an iconic political leader for the people of Narayanganj, became the NCC mayor for the consecutive third time for her honesty, sincerity and sacrifice for the people of Nayaranganj, said election experts, analysts and local people of Narayanganj.
They said grown up in a political family, Dr Selina Hayat Ivy, the first female mayor in Bangladesh, has become an unparalleled leader in the politics and development in Narayanganj. Other politicians should learn from Ivy, they added.
At a press conference on Sunday night, Dr Selina Hayat Ivy thanked the people of Narayanganj for voting for ‘Boat’.
She said, “The people of Narayanganj have always supported Awami League. I am very grateful to them for their continuous support and love for me and Awami League.”
She also pledged to work for the people of her area. She expressed her firm will to develop the city further in future.
However, At the end of the counting of vote, the Election Commission (EC) authorities unofficially declared Selina Hayat Ivy as the mayor of Narayanganj City Corporation in the evening as she secured a total of 1,61,273 votes. Her nearest rival independent candidate Taimur Alam Khandakar bagged a total of 92,171 votes.
According to the EC sources, Ivy secured 69,102 more votes than Taimur Alam Khandakar.
There were a total of 517,357 voters in the NCC area and the voting was held from 8:00am to 4:00pm without any break at 192 centres.
The election was held almost in a peaceful manner amid tight security as no mentionable untoward incident was reported.
At the end of the voting process, both the main contestants expressed their satisfaction over the voting environment. All the votes were cast through the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).
Awami League-nominated candidate Dr Selina Hayat Ivy with her electoral symbol ‘Boat’ exercised her vote at Shishubagh School center located in front of her residence while Advocate Taimur Alam Khandakar, who took part in the election as an independent candidate with electoral symbol ‘Elephant’ exercised his vote at Islamia Madrasa center near his own residence.
Although a total of seven candidates took part in the mayoral election, none of the five other candidates could secure any mentionable votes in the election.
Ivy was first elected Narayanganj Municipality Chairman in 2003 by defeating BNP backed candidate Nurul Islam Sardar.
After the NCC was constituted in 2011, Ivy took part in the mayoral election as an independent candidate and became the first ever woman city mayor in the country’s history by defeating Awami League-nominated candidate AKM Shamim Osman. Ivy also became the NCC mayor for the second time in 2016 as a candidate from the Awami League by defeating BNP backed candidate Shakhawat Hossain.
This time she registered a hat-trick victory in the NCC mayoral election by defeating former BNP leader Taimur Alam Khandakar.
Besides being a political leader or a city mayor, she won the hearts of the people of Narayanganj through her social work and humanity.
Selina Hayat Ivy was born on June 6, 1966. She is a physician by profession. She took part in various political and social activities with her father from her school and college life. In 1993, she was the Health and Environmental Affairs Officer of Narayanganj City unit Awami League. Her active political career began in 2003 by participating in the municipal chairman election.
Her father, veteran politician Ali Ahmed Chunka, was a former Narayanganj municipal chairman. She started her education from Deovogh Akhra Primary School. Later, she was admitted to Narayanganj Preparatory School and she studied there up to the sixth grade. Then she got admitted to Morgan Girls' High School. She got junior scholarship in 1979 and passed her secondary school certificate examination in 1982. Then she joined the Odessa National Medical University in 1985 with a scholarship of the Russian government and took medical degree with merit in 1992. Later, in 1992-93 she completed the intern from Dhaka Midford Hospital. Ivy worked as an honorary doctor in Midwest Hospital in 1993-94 after her long education and in Narayanganj 200-bed hospital for 1994–95.
After being elected as the chairman of Narayanganj Municipality, Ivy engaged in removing irregularities and anomalies from the municipal areas. She also took steps to increase revenue collection of the municipality to ensure salaries of employees of the municipality and for development of the municipality.
