The election result in Pabna 1 constituency was manipulated at the eleventh hour yesterday, the locals have alleged.
“The activists of Shamsul Haque Tuku came in at the eleventh hour, and casted some votes illegally. Otherwise there is no way that the number can raise that high,” said Mohsin Ali, a voter of Santhia Upazilla after hearing the declaration of the result around 7.30pm yesterday.
“I had been personally observing many of the polling centres throughout the day, but I did not spot the presence of such a huge number of voters in any of them as the authority has declared,” Mohsin said.
“The government is doing this intentionally to prove that plenty of people have participated in the election,” he added.
This correspondent found a similar scenario, like the one described by Mohsin Ali, upon visiting more than 30 polling centres during the day.
In most of the polling centres, the number of votes casted remained within 150 to 200 until 3.30pm; however, the authorities declared that 700 votes were cast in total, many of which came in at the eleventh hour.
Around 2pm, Shakahwat Hossain, the presiding officer at the polling centre at Shahidnagar Government Primary School, confirmed 125 votes while in the result it was declared above 1,200.
Yeasin Ali, a voter of Bera thana said the manipulation was done by associates of Shamsul Haque Tuku, and his connection with the law enforcement agencies.
Alongside locals, a presiding officer, seeking anonymity, expressed concern over low voter turnout at noon yesterday and said it may not even exceed by 10% by the time the vote casting process ends.
Shamsul Haque Tuku won the election, with 65,929, votes beating his nearest contestant Prof Abu Sayeed who received 45,379 votes.
The other two candidates Yasin Arafat and Nazrul Islam received 661 and 1,093 votes respectively.