CEC must investigate Hero Alam complaint

Independent candidate Ashraful Hossain Alam aka Hero Alam complained that he changed the result of 10 centers of Nandigram upazila in Bogra-4 by-election. Considering this, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal ordered to check the matter. He gave the order to Bogra District Chief Electoral Officer and Deputy Returning Officer Mahmud Hasan over the phone on Thursday, February 2 morning.

In the afternoon, Mahmud Hasan said, after watching it live on a TV channel, the CEC asked to verify Hero Alam’s complaint. After verification, the CEC was informed that “the published results are correct”. In addition, the result places are printed and sent to him.

Bogra District Electoral Office sources informed that in the Bogra-4 (Kahalu-Nandigram) constituency by-election on Wednesday, the candidate of the 14-party League-led alliance Awami Jasder (INU) AKM Rezaul Karim Tansen was elected MP with 20,405 votes. Independent candidate Hero Alam lost to him by just 834 votes.

After the defeat, Hero Alam, in a press conference held at his home in Erulia village in Bogra Sadar around 10:30 p.m., complained that the results of 10 Nandigram upazila centers had been excluded and that the results had been changed. Hero Alam said he will file a subpoena in court seeking the cancellation of the results and redress in this regard.

After seeing the matter in the media, CEC Kazi Habibul Awal called around 11 a.m. on Thursday and ordered the Bogra District Elections Officer to check the matter. Later, the election official again checked the results from 10 centers and informed the CEC that they were “correct”.