A legal notice has been sent to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives, requesting that BNP leader Engineer Ishraque Hossain be sworn in as the Mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) by Monday.

The notice was issued on behalf of Ishraque Hossain by Barrister AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon, in accordance with the City Corporation Act, 2009.

Lawyer Ehsanur Rahman confirmed the matter.

The Election Commission (EC) issued a gazette notification on April 27, declaring Ishraque Hossain as the Mayor of DSCC. On Monday, an appeal was filed with the Appellate Division seeking a stay on both the verdict of the election tribunal and the gazette notification issued by the EC.

Earlier, the High Court had dismissed a writ petition that sought a stay on the swearing-in process and other activities related to the gazette.

The DSCC election was held on February 1, 2020, in which Awami League candidate Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh was elected mayor. The Election Commission (EC) published the official gazette of the results on February 2, and Taposh took office after being sworn in.

In that election, Taposh received over 400,000 votes, while his nearest rival, BNP candidate Ishraque Hossain, secured 236,000 votes. Alleging electoral irregularities and corruption, Ishraque filed a case on March 3, 2020, seeking to annul the results.

Following the fall of the Awami League government amid a mass uprising in August last year, all city corporation mayors were removed. Since then, Additional Secretary Shahjahan Mia has been serving as the administrator of DSCC.

On March 27 this year, Judge Md Nurul Islam of Dhaka’s First Joint District Judge and Electoral Tribunal annulled the previous result and declared Ishraque Hossain as the elected mayor of DSCC, based on the 2020 election. The court also instructed that a gazette be issued within 10 days. Subsequently, on April 27, the Election Commission issued the gazette officially declaring Ishraque Hossain as mayor.