Repolls ordered in 8 constituencies

The Election Commission has received final results of 139 seats out of the 147 in the 10th general elections.

Repolls will be held in the remaining eight constituencies where balloting was suspended in many centres due to violence.

Polling took place at 147 constituencies in 59 districts on Sunday.

153 other constituencies have returned winners without a contest in the polls boycotted by the entire Opposition.

According to the EC results, the Awami League won 105 seats and Jatiya Party 13 out of the 139 seats.

Workers Party got four seats and JaSaD 2 seats, with Twarikat Federation and BNF bagging one seat each.

A total of 13 independent candidates have been elected. Almost all of them are Awami League dissidents.

Of the 153 uncontested candidates, 125 belong to Awami League, 20 to Jatiya Party (Ershad), three to JaSaD, 2 to Bangladesh Workers’ Party and 1 to Jatiya Party (Manju).

In all, the Awami League already has a strength of 230 seats in the parliament while the Jatiya Party, which broke off from the League towards the end of the last term, has 33.

Awami league allies Workers Party has 6 seats and JaSaD has 5.

The Awami League can form a government on its own but will do so with its allies.

The Jatiya Party may sit in Opposition.

The tenth parliament polls, marred by Opposition boycott and intense violence, left 21 dead on the day of polling -- and many more in the rundown to it.

Polling was suspended in Dinajpur-4, Kurigram-4, Bogra-7, Gaibandha-1, 3, 4, Jessore-5 and Lakshmipur-1 due to violence.

EC officials said polls might be held there if votes of suspended voting centres are more than the margin of votes between the winner and his nearest contender in a seat.

According to the Election Commission officials, polling had to be suspended in around 540 voting centres out of 18000 in 147 seats due to violence.

Ballot papers were snatched and burnt and polling centres were set on fire.

Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad has said fair polls have been held in 97 percent of polling centres.

Election Commissioner Abu Hafiz has also said, “We will be happy if over 40 percent votes are cast in the polls, because that is the usual turnout in Great Britain.”

The Awami League has expressed satisfaction with the polls while BNP has called shutdown calling it a ‘farce’.

The Opposition BNP-led 18-Party alliance, which has boycotted the polls, demanded it be scrapped immediately and fresh polls held under a non-party caretaker dispensation.