AL candidate wins Dhaka-10 by-election

Awami League candidate Md Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin won the by-election to Dhaka 10 constituency which was held amid staggeringly low turnout today due to coronavirus scare.

BNP candidate Sheikh Rabiul Alam boycotted the by-polls result, alleging that his agents were driven out from the poling centres or were not allowed in.

Returning officer GM Shahtab Uddin while announcing the unofficial result said that Mohiuddin secured 15,955 votes while his nearest rival Rabiul Alam bagged 817 votes.

He said that voter turnout was 5.28 percent.

There are 321,275 voters under 117 polling centres in Dhaka-10 (Dhanmondi and Lalbagh).

Six candidates contested for the election.

Correspondents, while visiting 10 poling centres found that voting turnout was less than two percent till 4:00pm, one hour before voting ended.

Election Commission senior secretary Md Alamgir said that voting turnout was about 5 percent in the Dhaka-10 by-polls till 2:00pm. "If only one voter casts vote that is a participatory election," he added.

"Voter turnout was less as the there is no scope for casting false vote in the election using electronic voting machine," he said.

Election watchdog Shushasoner Jonno Nagorik Secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar said: "As far as I know this is the lowest ever turnout rate in national election or by-polls,"

He blamed coronavirus scare as well as voters' apathy for so little turnout in the election.