BNP wins low turnout Bogura-6 by-election

BNP’s Golam Mohammad Siraj won yesterday’s Bogura-6 by-elections, which saw the use of EVMs in all voting centres.

Siraj bagged 89,782 votes while his nearest rival Awami League’s T Zaman Niketa got 32,297 votes, said Zakir Hossain, Bogra Sadar upazila election officer, in an announcement last night.

The turnout was around 35 percent, he told The Daily Star.

For the first time in Bangladesh, the Election Commission used no ballot papers in any election. People cast their votes through electronic voting machines (EVMs) at all the 141 polling stations.

The voting ended peacefully. No incident of violence or any allegation of irregularities was reported till 8:00pm last night.

The parliamentary seat fell vacant after BNP lawmaker-elect Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, also secretary general of the party, did not take oath.

In his post-polls reaction, Siraj said, “I want to thank my oppositions for their cooperation and patience. I want to thank the CEC [Chief Election Commissioner], the local administration and police for playing a neutral role.”

However, he said, “Voters had no clear idea about using EVMs. The turnout would have been better had there been ballot papers in the election,” he said.

While voting was underway between 9:00am and 5:00pm, The Daily Star correspondent visited 10 polling stations and found a thin presence of voters.

Till noon, only 137 out of the expected 2,478 votes were cast at a centre at Belail Government Primary School.

Contacted over phone after the end of the voting, the centre’s presiding officer Shahinur Islam told The Daily Star that a total of 839 votes were cast yesterday.

Around 10:00am, this correspondent found that only 106 of 2,982 were cast at the PTI Academy polling station. Later in the evening, the station’s presiding officer ASM Mirazul Islam said as many as 455 votes were cast in the end.

The situations in the other polling centres, including at Pre-cadet High School, Noongola High School and Maltinagar High School, were similar.

After casting votes through EVMs, some expressed satisfaction while some said they were confused over its credibility.

“Using the EVM is easier than casting votes through ballots. I am happy with the new voting system,” said Malik Ahmed, a voter at the PTI Academy polling station in the town.

After voting for his favourite candidate at Bogura Zilla School, Fazlul Karim, a resident of Bogura town’s Sutrapur, said although he felt good using the EVM, he feared electoral fraud.

Apart from the AL and the BNP candidates, five other contested the polls. They are Jatiya Party’s Md Nurul Islam Omor; Bangladesh Congress’s Md Monsur Rahman; Bangladesh Muslim League’s Md Rafiqul Islam and independent candidates Md Minhaj and Syed Kabir Ahmem.