Expelled BNP leader Abdus Sattar wins B’Baria-2 by polls

Abdus Sattar Bhuiyan, recently expelled BNP leader and a five-time parliamentarian, has won the by-polls in a Brahmanbaria-2 constituency, one of the six seats vacated by BNP leaders following their resignation in December.

Contesting the polls independently, Abdur Sattar bagged 44,916 votes while his closest rival, Jatiya Party candidate Abdul Hamid Bhasani, got 9,635 votes, according to official data.

Another ex-BNP leader Abu Asif Ahmed, who has been missing since Friday and was considered a strong candidate in the by-polls, got 3,269 votes.

All the three candidates of ruling Awami League quit the race for Brahmanbaria-2 by-polls, giving Sattar a walkover. Besides, Awami League's leaders and activists were also seen strongly campaigning for Sattar. 

Earlier on 29 December, Abdus Sattar Bhuiyan resigned from the post of the party chairperson's adviser. On 1 January, the BNP expelled him from all posts of the party after he collected a nomination form for the Brahmanbaria-2 by-polls as an independent candidate.

Hero Alom loses in both Bogura seats

Independent candidate Ashraful Hossen Alom, best known as Hero Alom, lost both Bogura-4 and Bogura-6 seats.

In Bogura-4, Hero Alom lost by a narrow margin of 951 votes to the Grand Alliance-backed candidate AKM Rezaul Karim Tansen, who secured 20,437 against Alom's 19,486 votes.

However, in Bogura-6 constituency, Hero Alom failed to get the minimum 8% of the votes cast vote, which will cause him to lose his security deposit.

Ruling Awami League candidate Ragebul Ahsan Ripu won the Bogura-6 seat with 49,336 votes while his closest candidate Abdul Mannan got 21,864 votes.

AL candidate wins in Thakurgaon-3

Jatiya Party candidate Hafiz Uddin Ahmed won the Thakurgaon-3 by-poll with 84,047 votes while his closest rival, rebel Awami League candidate Gopal Chandra Roy, got 50,309 votes.

A total of six candidates contested the seat, including 14-party alliance-backed Yasin Ali of the Workers' Party.

AL also bags Chapainawabganj-2

Awami League candidate Ziaur Rahman won the Chapainawabganj-2 constituency by-poll securing 94,928 votes. His closest rival, independent candidate Mohammad Ali Sarker, got 25,399 votes. 

The by-poll result for the Chapainawabganj-3 seat was yet to be released at the time of filing of this report.

Polling relatively peaceful: CEC

Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal said no significant evidence of irregularities or rigging was found in the voting of the six constituencies.

"The polling was peaceful and fair," he said in a media briefing at the Election Commission Building in Agargaon.

The CEC said 40 candidates contested in six constituencies. Voting was held through 867 EVMs and the number of voters in six constituencies was 22.54 lakh.

The voting began at 8:30am and continued till 4:30pm.

Some 1,100 police were deployed at the polling stations, while four platoons of BGB members, nine teams of RAB and nine mobile teams of police were also present to maintain law and order.

[The Business Standard district correspondents contributed to this report]