Three years ago, the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) election was described as a premeditated farce and a mockery by a judge, who stated that declaring the ruling party’s candidate as mayor was merely a formal facade. The observation was made today by Judge Mohammad Khairul Amin of the Chittagong First Joint District Judge and Electoral Tribunal in his ruling.
The plaintiff’s lawyer, Mofizul Haque Bhuiyan, informed Prothom Alo that the court found evidence of vote rigging in the 2021 Chittagong City Corporation election. As a result, the court declared BNP candidate Shahadat Hossain as the mayor of the CCC and annulled the results of the election in which Awami League’s candidate Rezaul Karim Chowdhury was declared the winner. The court also ordered the issuance of a related gazette notification within 10 days.
The Chittagong City Corporation election was held on January 27, 2021. Awami League’s mayoral candidate, M. Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, won with 369,248 votes, while his main opponent, BNP’s Shahadat Hossain, received 52,489 votes. On February 24 of the same year, the defeated mayoral candidate, former convenor of the BNP’s Chittagong city unit, Shahadat Hossain, filed a case in the electoral tribunal, accusing nine people of election rigging.
After the fall of the Awami League government on August 5, amid student and public protests, then-mayor of Chittagong, M. Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, did not return to his office. On August 19, the government removed him from office and appointed Md. Tofail Islam, the divisional commissioner of Chittagong, as the administrator. Following this, today’s court ruling was delivered.
“Premeditated Farce of an Election”
According to court sources, in the ruling’s observations, Judge Mohammad Khairul Amin said that the election day events, irregularities, and the numerous allegations of mismanagement and fraud, reported in local, national print, electronic media, and social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube, clearly show that the “Chittagong City Corporation Election 2021 was a premeditated farce, a mockery, and merely an artificial formality to declare the ruling party’s nominated candidate as the mayor.”
The judge noted that if the election had been conducted peacefully, with full participation of all voters in a free, fair, and neutral environment, the plaintiff (Shahadat Hossain) would have been elected mayor by a large margin against the defendant (Rezaul Karim). The discrepancy in the plaintiff’s vote count was described as “completely unbelievable, illogical, and detached from reality.”
The court further observed that the returning officer and the regional election officer responsible for the CCC election signed off on the results. However, clear evidence of vote tampering and extreme irregularities became apparent when the polling station-based results were published. The defendants, disregarding electoral laws and regulations, wrongfully and illegally declared the first defendant, Rezaul Karim, as the elected mayor.
The ruling stated that the plaintiff had requested the annulment of the gazette notification declaring the results of the fraudulent and farcical election. The plaintiff also sought to be declared the winner of the mayoral position under the Local Government (City Corporation) Election Rules, 2010. Upon reviewing the plaintiff’s claims, the court found them valid. The earlier gazette notification declaring Rezaul Karim as the winner was deemed illegal.
In annulling the previous election results, the court cited Section 61(5) of the Local Government (City Corporation) Election Rules, 2010. This section allows an electoral tribunal to annul the election of a candidate if it is satisfied that the result was achieved through corrupt activities or illegal behavior, or if such activities or behavior were carried out to achieve the result. The court found that the first defendant (Rezaul Karim), along with election agents and other relevant individuals, had violated the Local Government (City Corporation) Election Rules, 2010, the City Corporation (Election Code of Conduct) Rules, 2016, and the City Corporation Election (Electronic Voting Machine) Rules, 2019, and engaged in corrupt, illegal, and collusive activities that destroyed the integrity of the electoral system.
