Shawdesh Desk: Citizens for Good Governance on Tuesday demanded formation of a Supreme Judicial Council to take action against the chief election commissioner and other election commissioners for their involvement in the irregularities in the December 30 general election.

The civil society organisation made the demand at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity, held to publish the results of its analysis of the centre-wise election results the Election Commission published on its website on June 29.

Civic group secretary Badiul Alam Majumder urged the president to form a Supreme Judicial Council considering its findings as a complaint over the electoral irregularities.

The analysis showed large-scale inconsistencies in the election results.

The commission data showed that 100 per cent votes were cast at 213 polling stations in the 11th parliamentary elections, marred by reported flaws and frauds.

As the analysis showed, all valid votes in 586 polling centres of 75 constituencies were cast for the ruling Awami League candidates.

The data showed that overall 80.20 per cent votes were cast in the 11th parliamentary elections while 1.06 per cent votes were rejected.

The highest 94.84 per cent votes were cast in Gopalganj-1 constituency and the lowest 39.34 per cent in Gaibandha-3, according to the results.

The analysis said that 76.86 per cent votes were cast for Awami League’s boat symbol, 13.30 per cent for Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s sheaf of paddy and 5.38 per cent for Jatiya Party’s plough.

It said that of the total 40,155 polling stations, 100 per cent votes were cast at 103 stations, 99 per cent at 127 stations, 98 per cent at 204 stations, 97 per cent at 358 stations and 96 per cent votes were cast at 516 polling stations.

Mentioning the difference in turnout between the polling stations that used paper ballots and those that used electronic voting machines, Badiul said that EVM centres saw lower turnouts as there was no scope in such stations for ballot stuffing the night before voting.

He said that the analysis results were enough to start a Supreme Judicial Council inquiry.

Terming the 100 per cent votes cast as ‘totally absurd’, jurist Shahdeen Malik said that the commission made forgery into the election results, adding that the chief election commissioner and other election commissioners should face a Supreme Judicial Council inquiry.

He pointed out that the commission consistently claimed that the December 30 general election was held in a fair manner.

‘We have observed that the ministers of the government are criticising negative reports published by international organisations, raising questions about the source of their information. The authorities have no way to raise this question about their reports as the source of the reports was the Election Commission,’ Shahdeen Malik added.

Columnist Syed Abul Maksud said that there was no record of 100 per cent turnout in the voting history of the world.

Political scientist and good governance activist Tofail Ahmed said that the commission lost its moral right to hold any more elections until the irregularities were tried.

Presided by former caretaker government adviser M Hafiz Uddin Khan, civic group central coordinator Dilip Kumar Sarkar read out the written statement.

Less than 50 per cent votes were cast at 931 polling stations where lowest 1.33 per cent or 29 votes were cast at the Jashore Cantonment Board Junior School polling station.

The data showed that no votes were rejected at 4,795 polling stations while the highest 61 per cent were rejected at Naogaon Govt Primary School polling station under Brahmanbaria-2 constituency.

The analysis also found massive inconstancies between the centre-wise election results published by the commission and the unofficial results provided by the returning officers to the candidates.

It said that as per the returning officer’s result 69.92 per cent votes were cast in the Dhaka-10 seat while the commission’s centre-wise result said that 73.09 per cent voters cast their votes.

The organisation also said that it did not agree with the chief election commissioner’s remark that now the commission had nothing in it.

Referring to a Supreme Court verdict, it said that the commission had the authority to cancel the election after investigating the matter.