No voting will be held to chose a mayor in the first-ever election to Mymensingh City Corporation as one of the two candidates has pulled out of the race.
On Wednesday (Apr 17), Jatiya Party’s candidate Jahangir Ahmed has filed to withdraw his candidacy, which means Awami League’s Ekramul Haque Titu will be elected unopposed.
Mymensingh residents will now vote on May 5 to elect councillors for the 33 general wards and 11 reserve wards in the city corporation.
“A total of five candidates filed nominations and two were cleared for the mayoral race. Jatiya Party’s Jahangir Ahmed withdrew his candidacy on Wednesday. Ekramul Haque Titu will be declared the mayor through an official gazette notification after the election,” Returning Officer Md Alimuzzaman said.
Speaking to the media after officially withdrawing from the race, Jatiya Party’s Ahmed said that he would like to work with Mayor-elect Titu to build a better city corporation. “I urge everyone, irrespective of political ideologies, to be a part of this development process of the city,” he said.
Titu, who was elected mayor in the last polls to the local government body when it was a municipality, is currently serving as administrator or the city corporation.
The boundaries of the Mymensingh City Corporation, composed of 33 general wards and 11 reserve wards, was set out in a gazette on Jan 28 of this year after the government upgraded Mymensingh to Bangladesh’s 12th city corporation on Oct 15 last year.
The National Implementation Committee for Administrative Reorganization-Reform (NICAR) approved the formation of the city corporation on Apr 2 last year.
The other city corporations are Dhaka North, Dhaka South, Chattogram, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet, Barishal, Cumilla, Narayanganj, Rangpur and Gazipur.
The total land area of the new city corporation is 91.135 square kilometres. The total population of the area is 471,858.
NICAR had previously formed the Mymensingh Division, the eighth in the country, in 2015. The division includes Mymensingh, Jamalpur, Sherpur and Netrokona districts.