Rangpur City Corporation
Campaign for mayoral poll gains momentum
L-R: Mayor aspirants Mostafizur Rahman, Shorfuddin Ahmed Jhantu meet separate groups as campaign for December 20 poll of Rangpur City Corporation intensifies. Twelve candidates will vie for the mayoral post.Photo: STAR
Candidates for the mayoral post at newly formed Rangpur City Corporation (RCC) election have intensified campaign and are going door to door to seek votes. Twelve mayoral, 91 women's reserved councillor and 321 councillor aspirants are contesting the first-ever RCC election, slated for December 20. The RCC has a total of 3.5 lakh voters, including 1, 78,614 females, to elect a mayor 33 ward councillors and 11women councillors to reserved posts. The Election Commission is likely to use electronic voting machines (EVM) partially in the RCC polls, officials said. The authorities are taking all preparations to ensure a free, fair and peaceful election, they said. It would be a great challenge for the mayor to resolve the city's existing problems like traffic jam, water logging, drug peddling, incoherent development of infrastructure and deterioration of law and order, observed local elites. In the city, the candidates for mayoral, women's reserved councillor and councillor posts have been doing all to draw public attention. They are holding rallies in different areas and making pre-poll pledges to woo voters, locals said. Police superintendent Saleh Mohammad Tanvir said, the law enforcers set up a number of checkpoints in different parts of the city recently for smooth-holding of the polls. Police, Rab and Ansar personnel would be deployed during the election to ensure a peaceful voting, said the SP. Meanwhile, Rangpur Zonal Election office has identified 104 out of 182 polling centres as “vulnerable†considering the previous records of the candidates of the respective wards. Rangpur Mahanagar Nagorik Committee has formally supported mayoral candidate Shorfuddin Ahmed Jhantu, former lawmaker and member of advisory committee of Rangpur district unit AL, in the election. As the Jatiya Party' decided to withdraw support to its presidium member Mosiur Rahman Ranga and expelled another two aspirants Manik and Mostafa, the party has no candidates in the polls. BNP has not shown any interest to contest the RCC polls.
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