Anaet Shawon
The ruling Awami League ticket holder Annisul Haq knocked out his main rival and BNP nominee Tabith Awal in the first round on Friday when Tabith lost to Annisul in the lottery draw arranged by the returning officer for allotment of election symbols in the mayoral race of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC).
April 10 was the scheduled date for distribution of symbols among the contestants of mayors, councillors and councillors for women reserve seats of the city corporations of Dhaka and Chittagong elections due on April 28.
At the very outset of the day's proceedings at the symbol distributions of DNCC, Returning Office Mohammad Shah Alam invited AL nominee Annisul Haq and BNP backed Tabith Awal to choose their symbols from among the prescribed ones. Both Annisul and Tabith opted for "table clock" that forced the election authority to arrange a lottery draw.
In the lottery, fortune smiled upon Annisul who won the lottery and got the "table clock" as his poll symbol. Tabith accepted the lottery result and later selected "bus" as his poll symbol from among the rest of the prescribed symbols.
On the other hand, the AL-backed mayoral candidate of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Sayeed Khokon won over the hearts and minds of the election commission officials and his rivals with "sweet words." At least six aspirants preferred "hilsa" as their symbol for the race.
An emotion choked Khokon appealed to all the candidates to sacrifice the hilsa fish symbol for him as his father Mohammad Hanif fought the most keenly contested election of DCC with the same symbol.
Reciprocating the feeling of their rival contestant Khokon, all five other seekers of the popular symbol "hilsa" surrendered their demand in favour of the beloved son of Mohammad Hanif, than the Returning Officer granted "hilsa" as the poll symbol to Awami League-backed contestant in the election.