The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday suspended the by-election at Gainbandha-5 parliamentary seat over widespread allegations of vote rigging and voter intimidation, said Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal.

“The Gaibandha-5 by-election has gone out of control,” the CEC told reporters at the Election Commission headquarters in Dhaka.  “We’ve noticed from the start that malpractices were taking place and illegal entries were being made at the secret places (booths),” he said.  

“We’ve clearly seen that voters were being intimidated. There were symbols of candidates on the clothing of the polling agents, which is a violation of election code of conduct,” he said.

He, however, did not name any candidate for the wrongdoing.

According to Section 91 of the Representation of the People Order (RPO), if the Election Commission finds that an election isn’t taking place fairly, the EC can stop election in some or entire constituency, the CEC said as he clarified the reasons behind the suspension.

“After much discussion and inspection, it seemed to us that some candidates were influencing the election by various means,” he said.  

The CEC said voting at 51 polling centres were postponed in phases after the voting began at 8:00 am, and by 12:30 pm it was evident that massive irregularities had taken place.

He said CCTV cameras set up at polling stations were disconnected and the EC officials could not monitor what was going on from a control room at the EC headquarters in Dhaka.

“We thought that if vote rigging has taken place at 51 polling centers, then the election at the rest of the centers will not have a real outcome. As a result, we suspended the entire Gaibandha-5 by-election,” the CEC said.  

Read: By-election to Gaibandha-5 on October 12

About the next course of action, the CEC said that they review laws and decide later what to do about this election.

“Through this election the EC has become aware of the hazards that take place during elections,” he said.

He reconfirmed that all the EVMs used at Gaibandha-5 election were working properly.“The EC has the guidance on what to or not to do to ensure free and fair election. There was no mechanical problem during the election, all the EVMs worked properly. The problem was caused by humans. To find out who were responsible for the malpractices, a thorough investigation is needed,” the CEC added.

As per Section 91 (a) of the RPO, the EC can stop election at any polling station or the entire constituency at any stage, if it is convinced that it shall not be able to ensure the conduct of the election “justly, fairly and in accordance with law “ because of “malpractices” including coercion, intimidation and pressures.  

Gaibandha-5 constituency consists of 10 unions of Saghata upazila and 7 unions of Phulchhari upazila.

Mahmud Hasan Ripon (Awami League), AHM Golam Shahid Ranju (Jatiya Party), Advocate Jahangir Alam (Independent ), Nahiduzzaman Nishad (Independent) and Syed Mahbubur Rahman (Independent) were contesting the election.

There are 3 lakh 39 thousand 743 voters.

After former MP and Deputy Speaker of the 11th National Parliament Fazle Rabbi Mia died on July 23 the Gaibandha-5 seat fell vacant.