A day after assistant returning officer declared the results of Tangail-8 by-elections, the returning officer on Sunday postponed the results, citing regularities. Withholding the election results, returning officer Khurshid Anwar, also the Mymensingh regional election officer, wrote to the Election Commission to fix a date for re-voting in one of the centres. While talking to reporters at his office on Sunday, the returning officer said the results were postponed on Saturday night. Earlier, assistant returning officer Habiba Akhter had announced the election results on Saturday night reportedly under pressure from Awami League leaders and activists. Habiba filed a general diary with Tangail Model Police Station alleging that she announced the results amid a life threat issued by the ruling party men. According to the announced results, ruling Awami League’s candidate Anupam Shahjahan Joy won the Tangail-8 by-elections. Anupam, son of late Shawkat Momen Shajahan, was shown to have bagged 75,960 votes in all 117 centres while his nearest rival independent candidate Abdul Malek, known as an AL rebel, polled 71,408. The results were announced with votes cast in a centre until 2:30pm when voting in the centre was suspended following irregularities. The centre has 2,701 votes. Excluding the centre, Anupam got 73,565 votes in the other 116 centres while Malek 71,329. Mentioning that Habiba has no authority to announce the election results, Khurshid Alam said he wrote to the EC to arrange fresh voting in the suspended centre. Three others who contested the by-polls are Sadek Siddiqui of JP (Manju), Principal Abu Sayeed (AL rebel) and Liaqat Ali. The seat (Basail-Sakhipur) fell vacant following the death of AL MP Shawkat Momen Shajahan on January 20. – UNB
