Golam Kibria Tipu, a defeated candidate of Jatiya Party (Ershad), in Barisal 2 constituency, demanded fresh polls at 16 out of 87 polling centres. He alleged that the Workers’ Party candidate Advocate Tipu Sultan, with the help of local musclemen, cast fake votes.
Golam Kibria Tipu, who is the incumbent lawmaker in the constituency, submitted the application containing the demand to Deputy Commissioner and Returning Officer Shohidul Alam at about 11:30pm on Sunday.
In the application, he said supporters of the rival candidate Tipu Sultan started casting fake votes after 10am, but before that the election was free and fair.
After 11am, activists of the rival candidate forcibly entered 15 centres under Babuganj upazila and one centre under Muladi upazila and ousted JaPa’s polling agents from there, continuing to stamp seals next to the “hammer” on ballot papers, with the help of local administration and Sharbahara cadres.
Golam Kibria Tipu boycotted the polls at about 2:30pm on Sunday, alleging various acts of fraud to have been committed by his rivals, including the ousting of his agents from polling centres and fake vote casting.
Shohidul Alam, the returning officer, said results from a total of 87 centres of Barisal-2 constituency had been announced, and Advocate Tipu Sultan (the “hammer” symbol) had been declared the winner.
Tipu Sultan got 35,605 votes, while his nearest rival Golam Kibria Tipu (the “plough” symbol) got 23,407 votes.
There are 216,678 voters in the constituency and the turnout was 27.89%.
Concerning the proposed cancellation of election results, the returning officer said the demand could not be met as Golam Kibria Tipu had sent an application through his election agent more than an hour after the result had been declared.
Then returning officer had nothing to do with that application, as per the rules, he added.
Md Dulal Majumdar, district election officer, said, however, he could go to court with his demand before the gazette publication.
Tipu said he would go to the High Court with the plea for a cancellation of the results and a re-run of the election, after collecting the necessary documents and evidence.
