BNP candidate Abdus Sattar Bhuiyan has been elected in Brahmanbaria-2 following yesterday's re-polling in three centres of the constituency.

Sattar bagged 1,274 votes yesterday and won with a total of 83,997 votes.

His closest rival Moyeen Uddin, an independent, bagged a total of 75,419.

Sattar had already been leading the polls with 82,723 votes, said Election Commission officials.

The number of constituents under the centres was 10,572. Only 4,300 voted yesterday, said Returning Officer Hayat-Ud-Dwollah Khan as he announced the unofficial result.

There were a total 132 polling centres in Brahmanbaria-2.

Voting was suspended in three centres during the December 30 election due to violence. The centres are Jatrapur Government Primary School, Bahadurpur Government Primary School and Sohagpur Dakkhin Government Primary School.

Including this, eight lawmakers have been elected from the BNP-led Jatiya Oikyafront. The Awami League-led alliance won 288 seats.

Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda yesterday rejected the Transparency International Bangladesh report on irregularities in the 11th parliamentary polls, terming the report “baseless”.

Besides the CEC, two ministers criticised the report. 

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader, also road transport and bridges minister, called the TIB report a “fairy tale”.

Information Minister Hasan Mahmud said the TIB report was a “deliberate falsehood” and it echoed the speech of opposition alliance -- Jatiya Oikyafront -- regarding the December 30 polls.    

On Tuesday, the TIB in its study titled “Review of Election Process of 11th National Election” said irregularities took place in 47 out of the 50 constituencies it surveyed. 

It termed the polls “partially participatory, non-competitive, questionable and faulty" and demanded a judicial inquiry into the reported irregularities.

The anti-graft watchdog said ballot papers stamping took place the night before the election in 33 constituencies, stamping ballots openly after occupying booths in 30 seats on the election day and non-availability of ballot papers in 22 constituencies.

The TIB study found ballot boxes filled-up before polling even began in 20 constituencies; voters forced to cast ballots for a particular symbol in 26 constituencies, casting of fake votes in 41 seats, silence of the administration and law enforcing agencies in 42 seats and obstructing and driving out polling agents in 29 seats.

In the 50 constituencies, not all the polling centres necessarily saw the anomalies. Irregularities happened in one or more centres of a seat, the watchdog said.

'IT IS BASELESS'

“We are completely rejecting the TIB report on the election. It is baseless,” the CEC told reporters after an orientation programme of the newly appointed Election Commission officials at the Nirbachon Bhaban in the capital yesterday.

The CEC said there was no similarity of the TIB report with those published in newspapers and accounts of other observers on the voting day.

Information provided by the election enquiry committees, executive magistrates and EC officials and others on the polls also do not match the TIB findings, he said.

The CEC also slammed the TIB's allegation that the EC failed to act neutrally and the role of some polling officers and law enforcement agencies were biased, saying, “The speech is disrespectful ... They should not speak like that.”

He said the commission would not take any step against TIB over its report.

'FAIRY TALE'

“The TIB has come up with the fairy tale long after the election,” Quader told journalists after an extended meeting of Dhaka South City unit Jubo League at AL's central office on the Bangabandhu Avenue.

“The TIB has cooked up so many imaginary and unbelievable stories. The countrymen will give a reply to the report.”

He termed the December 30 election transparent and excellent.

“Did any agent of BNP and Oikyafront candidates make any objection about the transparency of the election on the voting day?” Quader questioned.   

HASAN BINS REPORT

In another development, Information Minister Hasan Mahmud said, “There is no difference between the TIB    report and the speech of the Oikyafront. In fact, the TIB just published a report in favour of BNP and Jamaat-Shibir.”

He was addressing a press conference in his Dewanji Pukur Par lane house in the port city yesterday, reports a staff correspondent in Chattogram.

The minister added that though the TIB usually claimed that its reports were based on research findings. But in fact, no proper research was actually done. 

The Election Commission will announce next week the election schedule for the 50 reserved seats for women in the 11th parliament, EC Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed said today.

“According to the 11th parliamentary election results, 43 seats will be reserved for Awami League while four for the Jatiya Party, one for Jatiya Oikyafront and two for the independent and other candidates,” Helal Uddin Ahmed told reporters at Nirbachan Bhaban in the capital’s Agargaon.

Besides, the upazila parishad elections will be held in phases from the first week of March, he added.

The AL-led grand alliance secured 288 seats -- the AL 257, the JP 22 and others 9 -- in the December 30 election. The BNP-led Jatiya Oikyafront got only eight seats.

Leading Indian newspapers editorially commented today on the outcome of parliamentary elections in Bangladesh saying Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's return to power is "good news" for relations with India, but cautioned against her government's "authoritarian" strait.

Hindustan Times termed Awami League's landslide victory in parliamentary polls as "stunning" and The Times of India described it as "massive" while The Hindu opined Hasina "remains immensely popular" on the back of a "formidable record of economic growth and social progress."

The editorial in Hindustan Times said "in the last decade of her rule, Ms Hasina has had a mixed track record. While Bangladesh's economy has surged ahead, her record on human rights leaves a lot to be desired."

"Even as Bangladesh is on the brink of shedding its tag of least developed country, the government has crushed all opposition forces in that country. Ms Hasina's regime has harassed journalists, arrested opposition leaders and remained passive to the killing of bloggers," it said adding "New Delhi would do well to quietly remind her from time to time to keep her authoritarian instincts in check."

The Times of India editorial said "it cannot be denied that Hasina remains a hugely popular and under her Bangladesh's economy has posted strong growth …and the country is poised to join the developing countries category by 2024."

It also said "Hasina and the Awami League have a secular vision for Bangladesh …Additionally, the Awami League dispensation has cracked down hard against Islamists and local terror cells. Plus, the ties between India and Bangladesh have soared under Hasina…"

Pointing out that "Hasina's return at the helm of Bangladesh should further aid New Delhi and Dhaka ties," the Times of India said "one of the issues the opposition campaigned on, justifiably, was the increasing authoritarian ways of the Awami League government. Hasina would do well to redress this quickly. Failing to do so would provide scope for the Islamists to stage a comeback."

The Hindu commented that the Awami League "set the agenda for the election and dominated the campaign. Still, the scale of the victory would have taken even her supporters by surprise."

However, it said "the government and the Election Commission could have held the election without being open to charges that it was manipulated" and asked the Election Commission to "conduct a fair investigation into allegations of rigging to restore faith in the poll process."

"There was a crackdown on the opposition in the run-up to polling day. Pro-opposition websites were taken down, thousands of activists were jailed, and political violence was unleashed to target BNP members. The situation was so grave that even one of the election commissioners said there was no level playing field. …Her otherwise impressive record has been marred by her government's authoritarian character.

"The (election) victory is a chance for Ms. Hasina to mend her ways, to be more inclusive and run a government that respects the rule of law, the basic rights of citizens and institutional freedom," The Hindu said.

It added that "For India, Ms. Hasina's victory is good news. New Delhi and Dhaka have deepened economic, security and strategic ties under her leadership. This should continue, no matter what the general election outcome in India in 2019."

The editorial in The Economic Times said the Hasina government's "strong arm measures that give the discredited opposition the chance to cry foul were eminently avoidable."

It said "the shrinking political presence of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which backs Islamists, will ensure that the country becomes far less hospitable to Islamists."

The newspaper said Sheikh Hasina's electoral victory "is important for New Delhi in the context of countering China's influence in the region. India must continue to partner Bangladesh in its economic growth, encouraging Indian companies to invest and working together in climate change, terrorism, migration and energy."