Two Awami League leaders running as independents –Abdus Salam and MA Motalleb – have beaten candidates running under the plough and the boat respectively in Chattogram.
The two were announced as winners in the official count announced by the district administration on Sunday and in the tally from the polling centres.
Former CDA Chairman and Awami League city leader Salam took the Chattogram-8 (Boalkhali-Chandgaon seat), while district Awami League leader Motalleb won the Chattogram-15 (Satkania-Lohagora) seat.
Awami League candidate Noman Al Mahmud had withdrawn from the Chattogram-8 seat in favour of the Jatiya Party candidate as part of a seat-sharing deal. Salam later ran as an independent.
Salam took 78,266 votes. Another Awami League leader running as an independent – Bijoy Kumar Chowdhury – came second with 41,500 votes. Solaiman Alam of the Jatiya Party came third with 8,245 votes.
The Chattogram-8 seat has 515,573 registered voters.
Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal’s Mayeen Uddin Khan Badal had won the seat three consecutive times prior to his death in 2019.
MA Motalleb, running under the eagle symbol, won the Chattogram-15 seat with 85,628 votes, beating Awami League candidate Abu Reza Muhammad Nezamuddin Nadwi, who received 39,252.
The constituency has 458,411 registered voters. Voters cast 126,152 ballots in the race on Sunday and another 3,211 were cancelled. The turnout was 27.51 percent.
In 2018, Nadwi had retained the seat he won in 2014 by beating the LDP’s Ali Ahmed by 189,186 votes to 22,225.
