Staff Reporter:
Mamunul Haque, a candidate for the Dhaka-13 constituency, lodged complaints with the Election Commission at its Agargaon office around midnight, alleging fake voting and delays in announcing results.
The Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis candidate claimed that at least 1,200 votes were cancelled in 50 polling centres in his constituency, estimating that the figure could rise to around 3,500 if all centres were taken into account.
“Since the margin of votes is around 2,200, and there was fake voting along with vote cancellations, the rival candidate won by a small margin. This is very painful,” Mamunul Haque told reporters.
Earlier in the day, after casting his vote at the Physical Education College polling centre in Mohammadpur at 8am on Thursday, Mamunul Haque said he was optimistic about victory and would accept the outcome if the election remained fair.
“If no artificial crisis is created, if polling remains normal and people can spontaneously exercise their right to vote, then I will accept the results, and everyone else should accept them too,” he said.
Explaining his midnight visit to the EC, Mamunul Haque said there had been delays in publishing results at multiple centres. “We suspect that some engineering took place during this time,” he alleged.
He further claimed that an unstable situation was created by surrounding a particular polling centre, resulting in the withholding of results, which were announced later. He also alleged that the votes had been tampered with.
Mamunul Haque said he had informed the Returning Officer of the matter but was advised to raise the issue directly with the Election Commission.
