At least six people, including police and Ansar members, have been injured and an executive magistrate’s car vandalised in a fierce attack before the result announcement of Birol municipality election in Dinajpur.
The incident took place in the Brahmapur government primary school polling centre of the municipality around 5:30 pm on Thursday.
However, upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) Afsana Kawsar and executive magistrate Mahmudul Hasan denied the attack and vandalism.
UNO Afsana Kawsar said there was a bit anarchy in the polling centre. The aggrieved people attacked a requisitioned vehicle. None of the administrative officials suffered injuries and the election ended successfully.
She also said they sat in a discussion over the issue.
In conversation with witnesses, it was learnt that the voting finished there at 4:30 pm. But tension arose among the followers of two candidates over the delay in the result announcement.
When the presiding officer – assistant engineer Abul Latif of the public health engineering department – was placing the handwritten result on a board, the followers of the defeated candidate started shouting and wanted to see the result copy printed out of the EVM machine.
At one stage, executive magistrate Mahmudul Hasan came to the spot. As the presiding officer took voting instruments to the magistrate’s vehicle and attempted to leave the spot, the followers of the defeated candidate threw brick chips at them. The vehicle was damaged while some suffered injuries in the attack.