EC formally declares Shaon as Bhola winner

Bhola, Apr 25 (bdnews24.com) – The election commission has officially declared the AL candidate Nurunnabi Chowdhury Shaon winner of Saturday's Bhola – 3 constituency's by-election.

The constituency's returning poll officer Nuruzzaman Talukder made the declaration on Sunday midday at his office.

He said that 67.17 percent of the total 234,926 registered voters in the constituency had cast votes in the by-election.

Of the 136,531 votes cast, Shaon had received a total of 93,873 votes in comparison to his BNP rival Maj Hafiz Uddin Ahmed's 42,658 votes.

Voting was suspended at nine out of 86 centre, which represents just over 10 percent. The nine centres accounted for some 31,000 votes.

The returning officer also said that the law enforcers deployed for the polls will stay in the area until Apr 28 to avoid unwanted incidents.

The EC had earlier said that the polls were held peacefully except for a few separate incidents.

However the BNP has raised strong allegations of widespread violence and intimidation demanding the elections be declared null and void. He alleged that law enforcers, the Election Commission and the ruling party colluded to defeat the BNP.

"The EC, RAB, police and local officials abetted the ruling Awami League to stage a farce of an election."

However, AL joint general secretary Mahabub-ul-Alam Hanif brushed off the allegations made by Hafiz Uddin in a press conference after the polls saying, "It is completely out of the question."

He also said "It is unfortunate that people demands cancellation of the elections whenever they lose. It has turned into a culture."

BNP leaders in Dhaka echoed Hafiz saying they would not accept the results and demanded a new schedule for the election.

Mirza Abbas, member of the party's standing committee, said, at a press conference at its Naya Paltan office on Saturday afternoon that "BNP will reject the result of this election."

Moreover, BNP also demanded immediate resignation of chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda and two other commissioners.

"We want the chief election commissioner and the two other commissioners to step-down," he said.

A team of BNP leaders led by BNP standing committee member MK Anwar met the Chief Election Commissioner Shamsul Huda in Dhaka on Saturday and told him that in 37 centres there were no polling agents representing BNP.

However, returning officer Nuruzzaman Talukder said he had no knowledge of such claims, but, he said, "We cannot allow anybody to act as an agent who cannot show his identity and other valid documents."

Hafiz Uddin Ahmed carried the seat in 1991 (44.9 percent votes) as an independent and winning in 1996 (with 59 percent of the votes) and in 2001 (with 65.8 percent votes).

However, he lost in 2008 with 45.7 percent votes while the AL candidate, Jashim Uddin won with 52.8 percent.

However, the Election Commission (EC) declared the Bhola-3 constituency vacant after finding the elected MP Md Jasim Uddin's candidature invalid.

Jasim Uddin was sent into forced retirement from the army, as a major, in 2004. Electoral laws do not allow a person holding public office to contest in elections within 5 years of leaving the service.

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