Ivy secures a hat-trick win in N'ganj city polls

Ruling party Awami league candidate Selina Hayat Ivy has created history by becoming the first person to be elected thrice as mayor of any city in the country, according to provisional results from 164 out of 192 polling centres that show her racing to an insurmountable lead on Sunday evening.

Returning officer Mahfuza Akter announced 138,926 votes for Ivy and her electoral symbol boat, and 78,963 votes for independent candidate Taimur Alam Khandaker and his symbol elephant - a lead of nearly 60,000 votes that cannot be made up by the number of votes left to count in the 28 polling centres where results are still pending.

Speaking from the District Commissioner’s office, the returning officer also said the turnout for the election had been 50% - although provisional, this is much lower than the 62% in 2016, and 69% in 2011.

Ivy was previously elected twice, in 2011 as an independent candidate when she became the first woman to be elected as mayor in the country, before reelection as the ruling Awami League candidate in 2016.

The voting started at 8am and ended at 4pm. However due to the slow pace of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and presence of voters in some centers of Bandar upajila, voting continued after 4 pm.