Staff Reporter :
The Election Commission (EC) didn’t see any disaster in Cumilla City Corporation (CCC) elections, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal said this during a view exchange meeting with journalists on CCC polls at EC office on Monday.
Journalists know that it was not possible to alter the result in five minutes, the EC claimed.
Even, the EC didn’t order local Parliament Member to leave his Constituency and AKM Bahauddin Bahar didn’t breach the law too, the CEC added.
The allegation to change the result of CCC polls by a mobile phone call is a rumor, CEC said.
Earlier on June 15, the CCC polls were held
amid tight security. Awami League candidate Arfanul Haque Rifat elected as CCC mayor in the polls. Soon after declaration of the results, the independent mayoral candidate of Cumilla City Corporation elections Monirul Haque Sakku claimed that a phone call changed the election result.
“After the announcement of 105 centres’ results, a phone call came. Later, they (Election Commission) delayed 45 minutes to announce the result,” Sakku claimed.
“I was ahead of AL candidate Arfanul Haque Rifat with 980 votes. They snatched my victory by “election engineering,” he alleged.
“The procession during result hours was due to the emotional outburst of the supporters. It is undesirable to us but desirable to them. They did it out of sheer excitement. It is said that the Returning Officer went to the toilet when the results were announced. If it was a natural call, he could go to the toilet. There was nothing wrong with that,” Kazi Habibul Awal said.
It is absolutely impossible that the result was changed at the last moment, CEC said, adding that he made one or two telephone calls by himself.
“We observed the polls till 8 pm and we didn’t see any disaster. We were watching the overall polls situation through CCTV. A thing is being heard that a telephone call changed the results, which is absolutely wrong,” Awal said.
According to the CEC, “Our Returning Officer called me in a state of shock and said, ‘I’m in danger.’ I could hear loud noises there. I thought he was being beaten. I then called DC-SP and they said they were looking into the matter.”
The CEC told the returning officer that there would be no problem as the police had arrived there and gathering of people had been evacuated.
“The chaotic incident was only 15-20 minutes. He then announced the election results, which we saw through CCTV,” the CEC said.
Kazi Habibul Awal said the local lawmaker AKM Bahauddin Bahar did not breach any law.
“According to the code of conduct, there is no doubt that he (Bahauddin) is a very important person. Not only Member of Parliament, can’t even the Election Commission order any ordinary person to leave their localities. We didn’t order Bahauddin to leave the area, we just humbly requested him,” the CEC said.
Election Commissioners Begum Rashida Sultana, Brigadier General (Retd.) Ahsan Habib Khan, Md. Alamgir and Humayun Kabir Khandaker were present during the views exchange meeting.
