Who made the mistake?

Journalist Hedait Hossain Molla, Khulna correspondent of Dhaka Tribune and online portal Bangla Tribune, was granted bail in a case filed under the Digital Security Act for running a report on the election results of Khunla-1 constituency reportedly with false information. A Khulna court on Thursday granted his bail until 14 January.

Hedait was arrested for publishing a report that stating that there were 22,419 more votes counted than cast in the Khulna-1 constituency.

Was it his mistake?

Those journalists who were present during the announcement of the election results said returning officer (RO) and deputy commissioner Mohammad Helal Hossain made the ake.

Also, a video clip of the election results announcement shows the RO announcing that the 'boat' received 253,000 votes while the ‘Sheaf of Paddy’ got 28,170.

However, an hour later, the RO published the revised results of the votes.

He then said, “There are 107 polling centres. Winner Panchanan Biswas gets 172,000 votes while his nearest contestant gets 28,437 votes.”

At least five journalists of Khulna and Dhaka made the same statement about the matter, that it was the ‘deputy commissioner (DC) who made the mistake first.'
Read more: Khulna journo Hedait gets bail until 14 Jan

The journalists at the briefing drew this to the attention of the DC, but he did not respond, they said.

Ekattor TV journalist Parvez Nadir Reza, who was present during the event on 30 December night, told Prothom Alo when the RO announced that AL candidate got 253,000 and BNP candidate 28,000, some of the journalists tried to draw this to his attention.

But, he did not say anything about whether the journalists should publish the results or not.

Instead, the RO instantly made a phone call to someone and converse in English over the matter.

When asked, Helala Uddin said, “We had the results of several constituencies there. I may have been announced the results of other constituency.”

“The result copy which contains my signature is the genuine one. No one can say anything until you get the copy.”

Following the publication of the report, Baliaghata upazila executive officer and assistant returning officer Debashis Chowdhury filed a case against journalists Hedait Hossain Molla and Rashedul Islam under the digital security act saying that the report headlined ‘22,419 more than total votes cast in Khulna-1’ was based on 'false and fabricated information'.