A. B. M. Mohiuddin Chowdhury - Defeat in 2010

Defeat in 2010

Mohiuddin lost the fourth Chittagong City Corporation Election to Mr Manjur Alam in 2010 by one hundrerd thousand votes. Manjur Alam was a former financial backer of Mohiuddin. They fell out after Mohiuddin was arrested by the Army backed Caretaker Government. Critics argue over the long years in charge Mohiuddin became dictatorial in his decision making, often ignoring the Civil society when taking controversial decisions. Internal party feuds also contributed in Mohiuddin's downfall. Others argued, Mohiuddin failed to capitalise his main voters, working class and minority voters on the day of election. Mr Manjur Alam's ostensible financial might was also a no match for Mohiuddin. Before the election Mr Manjur Alam submitted his wealth statement which showed he was 150 times richer than Mohiuddin. As the election was held on Thursday just ahead of two day weekend, it effectively became a three day weekend when most of the working class supporters of Mohiuddin left their factories and headed to their village homes as they do not usually enjoy such long public holidays in Bangladesh except during the time of Eid(s). As a result the election only had a turn out of 52% which was very low compared to Bangladeshi standard.