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Awami League’s Habib wins late Sahara Khatun's Dhaka-18 seat

| Updated: November 13, 2020 13:54:35


Awami League’s Habib wins late Sahara Khatun's Dhaka-18 seat

The Awami League candidate Habib Hasan has won the by-election for Dhaka-18 parliamentary constituency left vacant following the death of the party stalwart Sahara Khatun.

The result was unofficially announced by Returning and Dhaka Regional Election Officer GM Sahtab Uddin around 8:30 pm on Thursday, within four hours of ballot casting in the electronic voting machines (EVMs), reports bdnews24.com.

Across 217 voting centres, Habib secured 75,820 votes, while his closest rival, the BNP candidate SM Jahangir Hossain got a measly 5,369 votes.

The BNP complained of violation of code of conduct during the voting process which was held without fanfare. The Election Commission, however, refuted such allegations.

Among the other candidates, Gana Front's Kazi Md Shahidullah polled 126 votes, Md Omar Faruk of the Bangladesh Congress drew 91 votes and Md Mohibullah Bahar of Pragatishil Ganatantrik Dal got 87.

According to Assistant Returning Officer Md Nazrul Islam, only 81,818 voters, a meagre 14 per cent of as many as 577,188 voters, turned up for this by-poll amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The Dhaka-18 constituency comprises Dhaka North City Corporations No. 1, 17, 43 to 54 wards and the airport area.

The seat was vacated after the death of Sahara Khatun on Jul 9, while the passing of another Awami League stalwart Mohammed Nasim on Jun 13 left the Sirajganj-1 seat empty.

The voting for Sirajganj-1 constituency is also under way and results will follow soon after the announcement of Dhaka-18 results, according to Assistant Returning Officer Abul Hossain.

Earlier, EVMs were used in by-polls to Dhaka-10, Dhaka-5 and Naogaon-6 seats before the coronavirus pandemic broke out. It was used in two by-elections on Oct 17.

Only 5.28 per cent of votes were cast in the Dhaka-10 by-polls which used EVM machines. The figure was 10.43 per cent in Dhaka-5 and 36.49 per cent in Naogaon-6.

Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda blamed the political parties for the low turnout of voters.

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