Hero Alom, Asif forms the focal point
The Election Commission denied allegations of vote rigging leveled by Hero Alom. Commissioner Rashida said the allegation of tampering with the results was “baseless”.
“We accepted his allegation and spoke to the Deputy Commissioner, District Election Officer and other officials in Bogura. They are confident that his results are completely accurate.”
Hero Alom contested for two Bogura seats. As an independent candidate in Bogura-4, he got 19,571 votes, while AKM Rezaul Karim of Jatiya Samajwadi Dal-Jasad won the election with 20,405 votes.
Alom rejected the results and planned to challenge his loss in court by a razor-thin margin.
Independent candidate Asif, who allegedly disappeared from the Brahmanbaria-2 by-election, returned home on Thursday.
He said, “I could not cope with the pressure of the election, so I aloof and pulled myself out of the race.”
However, Asif neither disclosed his whereabouts nor elaborated on his sense of pressure.
Asif, former president of BNP’s Ashuganj upazila unit, was reported missing by his wife on January 27, five days before his election.
He was expected to be the primary rival of the Awami League-backed Sattar, who had been elected as an MP from the constituency five times on a BNP ticket.
Sattar had submitted his resignation to the BNP before contesting the bypoll, but the party said he was expelled for the decision.
