Shawdesh Desk:

Recently held Dhaka-17 constituency by-poll’s independent candidate Ashraful  Hossain Alom, popularly known as Hero Alom, filed an application to the Election Commission demanding re-election to the constituency.

‘There was vote rigging in the by-election and I have video footages of vote rigging. I will see the end of the election,’ he said while talking to reporters after submitting his application to the Election Commission office at Agargaon.

Awami League nominated candidate Mohammad Ali Arafat won the Dhaka-17 by election bagging 28,816 votes while Hero Alom got 5,609 votes.

Hero Alom also requested the speaker of the parliament not to administer the oath of Arafat as a lawmaker.

Replying to a question about what will he do if the appeal  is rejected at the EC, Hero Alom said, ‘As I have the evidence of vote rigging and irregularities in by-election, I will go to the High Court and I will see the end of it.’

In the petition, Hero Alom wrote, ‘I have contested the Dhaka-17 by-election on July 17 with Ektara election symbol. On the election day, I informed the Election Commission through e-mail that 88 of my agents were driven out of 19 polling stations within one hour of the election. There were vote rigging and irregularities.’

‘At 3:00pm, the cadres of ruling party Awami League physically assaulted me intentionally when I went to Banani Bidyaniketan polling station to observe the voting situation. People at home and abroad saw the attack through the electronic media. Besides, the officials concerned started vote counting after driving out my agents from different polling stations, which was contradictory to the electoral code of conduct,’ he said.

He also demanded cancellation of the election results, re-election to Dhaka-17 constituency and proper action against his rival candidate’s men for violating the electoral code of conduct.