Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis Ameer Maulana Mamunul Haque, supported by the Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party alliance, has raised concerns about irregularities in the vote counting process for Dhaka-13. He alleges that a flawed ballot layout resulted in the disqualification of thousands of votes cast in his favor.
Mamunul officially lodged a complaint with Dhaka-13 Returning Officer Md Yunus Ali at the Election Commission headquarters in Agargaon, Dhaka, at 3:00 am today. Prior to this, at around 2:00 am, he had a meeting with the returning officer to express the same grievances.
In a statement to the press, Mamunul explained that the ballot paper in the constituency listed nine candidates in a layout of two columns and five rows, leaving one box empty. His name and election symbol were positioned at the bottom of the first column, directly across from the vacant box in the second column.
He claimed that due to the confusing ballot design, many voters mistakenly stamped the empty box instead of his symbol, resulting in the cancellation of approximately 1,200 votes across 50 polling centers. Mamunul estimated that a total of around 3,000 votes were invalidated in all 137 polling centers within the constituency.
The Election Commission announced that BNP-backed candidate Bobby Hajjaj, running with the “sheaf of paddy” symbol, garnered 90,601 votes in Dhaka-13, while Mamunul received 86,889 votes, trailing by 2,200 votes.
Mamunul emphasized the narrow margin between him and Bobby Hajjaj, prompting his visit to the Election Commission to highlight the issue. He also pointed out a similar ballot arrangement in Dhaka-8, where BNP candidate Mirza Abbas competed, alleging that votes marked in the corresponding empty box there were accepted as valid.
Highlighting the apparent discrepancy, Mamunul claimed that votes in Mirza Abbas’s constituency were counted despite the similar ballot layout, whereas a significant number of his votes were disqualified in Dhaka-13.