BNP’s Sakhawat alleges anomalies in vote counting after defeat

Sakhawat Hossain Khan has alleged anomalies in the counting of votes even though the defeated mayoral candidate said the Narayanganj City Corporation election was relatively free.

He spoke to reporters around 10pm, just an hour before the returning officer declared Selina Hayat Ivy winner in the election.

The BNP candidate lost to Awami League’s Ivy by a margin of 79,568 votes in Thursday’s keenly watched elections.

This is Ivy’s second straight term as NCC mayor but the first as an AL candidate.

Sakhawat pointed out that in one centre, the presiding officer himself said there were 1,000 votes cast but during the count, it turned out to be 1,300 votes, of which AL candidate secured 800 votes.

He also said out of 174 centres, his agents got result sheets signed by the presiding officer from only 30 centres.

He, however, said this is his initial reaction based on the reports he had received from his agents and from observations.

BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi had earlier expressed fear of ‘election engineering’ though they found the polling was ‘relatively peaceful and fair’.

A total of 474,931 voters are registered in Narayanganj, of whom 239,662 are men and 235,269 women. Voters’ turnout was 62 percent compared with last election’s 70 percent.

One mayor seat, nine reserved women councillor seats and 27 ward councillor seats were up for grabs.

The BNP candidate lost in his own ward to Ivy by a big margin.

Sakhawat's 'paddy sheaf' bagged 968 votes in the two polling centres at Adarsha School next to Chasharha Eidgah Ground while Ivy's 'boat' secured 1,930 votes.

Ivy became the first mayor of Narayanganj after it was made a city corporation in 2011 by defeating another heavyweight Awami League leader, AKM Shamim Osman.

Taimur Alam Khandaker, the BNP-backed candidate in that election, had reluctantly withdrawn himself from the polls at the eleventh hour.

This year, the BNP picked lawyer Sakhawat, known for representing the sensational seven-murder case plaintiff in court, as its candidate, and the party vowed that it would fight to the finish.