Three defeated candidates out of the four in Magura municipal by-poll for the mayoral post from a joint press conference at Magura press club auditorium on Saturday alleged huge engineering in the election held on May 6 and blamed prime minister's assistant personal secretary (APS) Saifuzzaman Shikhar for the misdeed.
They also rejected the unofficial result announced by the returning officer (RO) and demanded recounting of votes immediately.
The candidates are Awami League (AL) backed Khurshid Haidar Tutul, BNP backed Dr. Mahbubul Haque Siddiquee and Jatiyo Party (JP) backed candidate advocate Hasan Seraj Suja.
The by-poll for the mayoral post was held as the post fell vacant following the death of Mohammad Altaf Hossain. The mayor of Magura municipality as well as the president of Magura district unit AL Altaf Hossain died on February 12 due to old-age complications.
They told the press conference that 19 presiding officers (POs) out of the 31 centres were appointed among the teachers of Magura Government Huseyn Shahid Suhrawardy College in a bid to influence the election.
Those controlled POs forced the polling agents to remain out of the room for about 15 minutes before counting the ballots, they alleged.
"If the ballot papers are recounted, the election engineering would come to light must, because in almost all the 19 centres addition ballot papers sealed in favour of BNP rebel candidate Iqbal Akhter Khan were dropped into the boxes", Suja claimed.
Saifuzzaman Shikhar, however could be contacted for his comment as he did not receive the phone call made by this correspondent.