Councillor candidate wins after boycotting election over fraud
Rafiqul Islam won the election as the sealed ballots were cancelled
Councillor candidate Rafiqul Islam who boycotted the Kalaroa municipal polls after alleging vote rigging has won the election.
According to the results announced by Kalaroa Upazila Election Officer Monoranjan Biswas this evening, Rafiqul bagged 11 votes more than his nearest rival to be elected councillor of ward-3 of the municipality.
Rafiqul Islam secured 606 votes with ostrich symbol, while his rival Enaet Khan Dalim received 595 votes with pomegranate symbol.
Earlier at 3pm, Islam boycotted the polls, submitting a written complaint to the upazila election office and demanded that an announcement be made about rescheduling the election.
In the written statement, Rafiqul complained that he had found hundreds of sealed ballots - bearing the pomegranate symbol - already in the ballot boxes. Votes are being stolen in multiple ingenious ways.
Locals said 318 votes for Enaet were discarded as they did not have the signatures of presiding officers. Rafiqul won the election as the sealed ballots were cancelled.