Hamtramck mayoral race too close to call with 11 votes separating candidates

HAMTRAMCK, Mich. (FOX 2) – Elections have been held throughout the nation, however the metropolis of Hamtramck remains to be ready to seek out out who the following mayor will probably be.

Metropolis officers say it’s too near name the race between candidates Muhith Mahmood and Adam Alharbi.

“The neighborhood may be very upset,” Mahmood stated. “And they do not know precisely what is going on on or how that occurred.”

In response to the present depend, Alharbi has a razor-thin lead with 2,009 votes over Mahmood, who had 1,998.

Alharbi stated he remained suspicious.

“We are able to definitely see that there’s division inside our neighborhood and that voter fraud nonetheless exists,” he stated. “As a result of we noticed issues throughout the marketing campaign the place voters weren’t controlling their vote.”

FOX 2 spoke to Metropolis Clerk Rana Faraj for solutions.

“The election was very shut, there was a distinction of 11 votes,” she stated. “A number of years in the past, election regulation allowed us to present voters till 5 a.m. on Friday after the election to appropriate rejected ballots.”

Metropolis officers say there are a number of the explanation why the ballots are being questioned.

“We presently have about 150 absentee ballots which were rejected for causes equivalent to no signature on the poll, flawed signature – it would not match,” Faraj stated. ‘The corrections have to be accomplished by 5 o’clock on Friday. They need to be in Wayne County on Monday. So till Wayne County does its finest to depend these ballots, it may take a while.”

As town waits to listen to who their subsequent mayor will probably be, many residents are additionally asking questions.

“They need to have began studying these absentee ballots sooner,” stated Diane, a Hamtramck resident. “Then they would not have this drawback. However in Hamtramck they by no means do something proper.”

A request for a recount have to be submitted by a candidate and should undergo the province.

Former mayor Amer Ghalib is presently in limbo throughout the affirmation course of after President Donald Trump nominated him as ambassador to Kuwait.

Hamtramck candidates for mayor: Adam Alharbi, left, and Muhith Mahmood.