Mohammad Arman Ali, an independent candidate of the Chittagong-10 by-polls, has boycotted the elections after making allegations of assault by Awami League activists.
The independent candidate, who participated in the by-election with the balloon symbol, has alleged that the leaders and activists of Awami League and its affiliated organizations attacked him twice.
He told Dhaka Tribune that the attacks were carried out at Pranhari Government Primary School and Dr Fazlul Hazara Degree College polling centers during the voting.
“I went to the centres to see how the polls were going. But the supporters of the ruling party attacked me there. Later, when I went to Dr Fazlul Hazara Degree College centre in the second phase, I was also attacked there. They dragged me out of the centre. I went home from there with the help of the police.”
He also said that the people of one party only went to the polling station and cast their votes.
“I gave my agent a few centres but they left from there. I do not believe that anyone can attack a candidate like this. So, I boycotted this election,” declared the candidate.
He also said that such an election cannot be fair.
Denying the attack allegation, Md Mostafizur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Pahartali police station, said that no incident like an attack on independent candidate Arman Ali took place there. We also spoke to the presiding officer of the centre, who confirmed that there was no disturbance.”
Voting was held in the Chittagong-10 (Doublemooring, Pahartali and Halishahar) by-election from 8am till 4pm on Sunday through EVMs at 1,261 booths of 156 polling stations.
Six candidates are contesting the election. They are Awami League candidate Mohiuddin Bachchu (boat symbol), independent candidate Manjurul Islam Bhuiyan (rocket symbol), Jatiya Party candidate Md Shamsul Alam (plough symbol), grassroots BNP's Deepak Kumar Palit (golden fibre symbol), Mohammad Arman Ali (balloon) and Bangladesh Sangskritik Mukti Jote's Rashid Mia (stick symbol).