PDP leader Santu lodges case challenging results

Sardar Sarfuddin Ahmed Santu, a Progressive Democratic Party (PDP)-backed candidate who lost the Barisal City Corporation (BCC) mayoral polls, yesterday lodged a case with the election tribunal challenging the polls results.
Santu lost the August 4 polls to Awami League-backed candidate Shawkat Hossain Hiron by 588 votes.
Santu said the election was free and fair but results were 'changed and manipulated' in favor of his nearest rival with the help of election officials.
In the case, Santu mentioned names of 16 people including nine polls rivals, the returning officer and six presiding officers of six polling centers.
He demanded cancellation of the polls results and declaring him mayor-elect.
Wahiduzaman Sikdar, judge of the tribunal and First Joint District Judge of Barisal, ordered recording of the case and fixed Wednesday for hearing. He also ordered submission of election documents by the election commission and video footages by the concerned television authorities.
Santu alleged that the returning officer did not announce results of six centers 18, 19, 31, 36, 57 and 79-- till 2 am on August 5 though vote counting there was completed before 10 pm, August 4.
“It should take maximum half an hour to take the results from any of the centers in the city to the election office, but mysteriously it took about eight hours to announce those”,' he said.
“It was nothing but part of an engineering to manipulate poll results”, he said.
“Power supply to polling centers no. 18, 19, 57 and 59 were disrupted in a planned way and result sheets of polling centers no. 49 and 57 were recovered from the presiding officer by calling them from their residences at 3:30 am”, Santu alleged.
“My opponent was made winner through vote rigging and manipulation in vote counting in some centers; and audio-visual reports of result manipulating attempts were recorded, telecast and published through the media”, he said.
He further alleged that his polling agents in many centers were denied certified copies of result sheets; and the election commission, even after repeated written applications, legal notice and general diaries (with police )did not supply those documents.
Santu in his appeal with election tribunal also claimed that declared mayor-elect Hiron concealed information about his gains as a lessee of BCC's Planet World Children Park and his defaulted loan of Pubali Bank, Barisal Branch (a/c no. 374-319-9224).