BNP candidate Mirza Faysal Amin wins Thakurgaon by election by a large margin

Masud Rana Polok,Thakurgaon

BNP candidate Mirza Faysal Amin has won the by election to the Thakurgaon 1 (Sadar, Ruhia and Bhulli) seat of the 13th National Parliament by a large margin. According to results of 183 of the 185 centers announced by the Returning Officer, he is far ahead and has reached victory.

Voting took place at all 185 centers of the seat at the same time, from 8 am yesterday. Counting began after voting ended at 4 pm. The latest information shows that Mr. Mirza Faysal Amin of BNP got 2,24,165 votes with the Sheaf of Paddy symbol in the 183 centers.

His closest rival, Mr. Delwar Hossain of Bangladesh Jamaat e Islami, got 95,450 votes with the Scales symbol. The seat has 5,16,140 voters in total. The District Election Commission said 52 percent of votes were cast by 3 pm. Five candidates ran in the election. The other three were Mr. Md. Abdul Alim Nizami of Bangladesh Khilafat Andolan (Banyan Tree), Mr. Md. Khademul Islam of Islami Andolan Bangladesh (Hand Fan) and Mr. Hussain Muhammad Omar Faruk of Bangladesh Congress (Green Coconut).

Mr. Mirza Faysal Amin expressed satisfaction that voting was peaceful all day except for a few isolated incidents. However, Mr. Delwar Hossain of Jamaat e Islami said officials at many centers had no photos on their identity cards, which he called worrying. He had also demanded security at 15 risky centers.

Wide security was put in place to keep the election fair. The force on duty included 21 platoons of BGB, 251 members of the Special Response Battalion, 2,272 police members and 2,405 Ansar members. Judicial and executive magistrates also did duty. A total of 177 local observers, along with four foreign observers, watched the election.

Law enforcers detained three people on charges of trying to cast fake votes at one center. A mobile court also fined a Jamaat leader Tk 5,000 for breaking election rules by giving voters slips with the symbol on them.

Mr. Akhtar Ahmed, Senior Secretary of the Election Commission, said the election was peaceful overall. He said no unpleasant incident has worried the commission so far. On the claim about missing photos on identity cards, he said voters were checked against the database and the agents were made to understand and were satisfied.