Mamunul visits Election Commission at midnight to file complaints

He claims at least 1,200 votes were cancelled in 50 centres within his constituency

Dhaka-13 candidate Mamunul Haque paid a late-night visit to the Election Commission (EC) to lodge a series of complaints, alleging proxy voting, ballot tampering and delays in the publication of results.

Mamunul, who is also the chief of Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis, claimed that at least 1,200 votes were cancelled across 50 polling centres in his constituency, adding that the total number of invalidated ballots could exceed 3,500.

“My margin of defeat is around 2,200 votes,” he told reporters. “Proxy votes were cast, and genuine votes were cancelled. That is how my opponent won by a narrow margin. This is deeply distressing.”

Earlier on Thursday morning, after casting his vote at the Physical Education College centre in Mohammadpur, Mamunul had expressed confidence of victory.

He had also said he would accept the outcome provided no “unpleasant incidents” occurred during voting.

Explaining his midnight appearance at the commission, Mamunul said there were unusual delays in announcing results at several centres.

“We suspect that some form of election engineering took place during that time,” he alleged.

He claimed that one polling centre was temporarily cordoned off, creating a tense situation, and that results were announced much later, raising concerns that ballots may have been tampered with.

Mamunul said he had first raised the allegations with the returning officer, who advised him to place the complaints directly before the Election Commission.

Shortly after 2:15am, security around the EC headquarters in Agargaon was tightened, with members of the Army and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) erecting barricades at the main entrance.

Large contingents of Army, BGB, police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) personnel were deployed outside the premises.