AL retains Nasirnagar, loses Sundarganj

FT ONLINE

The ruling Awami League has won the Brahmanbarhia 1 (Nasirnagar) seat but lost Gaibandha 1 (Sundarganj) to the opposition Jatiya Party in the parliamentary by-elections.

The voting in the two parliamentary seats were held on Tuesday. There was no report of violence in elections also contested by the BNP.

In Brahmanbarhia, Badruddoza Mohammad Farhad Hussain Sangram drew 83,296 votes for the Awami League’s boat symbol.

His nearest rival Jatiya Party’s Rezwan Ahmed got 33,584 votes, 49,712 votes fewer than Sangram polled.

Returning Officer Shafiqur Rahman announced the results in the night.

The Brahmanbarhia seat fell vacant after the death of fisheries and livestock minister Muhammed Sayedul Hoque MP on Dec 16 last year.

Sangram is a former leader of Bangladesh Chhatra League, the ruling party’s student affiliate.

In Gaibandha, the Jatiya Party’s Shamim Haider Patwary got 78,926 votes with the plough symbol to defeat by a margin of around 10,000 votes his nearest rival the Awami League’s Afruja Bari, who managed 68,913 votes.

Returning Officer GM Sahtab Uddin said the turnout in the bypolls to the Sundarganj seat was 44.46 percent. The number of voters in the constituency is 338,556.

Gaibandha Awami League leader Golam Mostafa was elected MP for Sundarganj on Mar 22 last year after the murder of his predecessor Manjurul Islam Liton MP on Dec 31, 2016.

As the seat fell vacant again after Mostafa died from car accident injuries on Dec 19 last year, the Awami League picked up Liton’s sister Afruja to run in the bypolls.