Cox’s Bazar-1: Jafar Alam quits polls alleging ‘rigging by BGB, intelligence agency’

Jafar Alam, an independent candidate from Cox’s Bazar-1 (Chakaria and Pekua) constituency in the 12th parliamentary election, and an incumbent MP of the constituency, quit the election alleging vote rigging led by “BGB and an intelligence agency” Sunday.

The incumbent AL member of parliament made the announcement from his verified Facebook page at around 3:00 pm.

“I’m quitting this election protesting at the vote-robbing by beating and throwing out my agents from the polling centres and occupying those at the leadership of the BGB (Border Guard Bangladesh) and an intelligence agency,” he said.

Jafar Alam failed to get the party ticket. Instead, the Awami League picked up Cox’s Bazar district Awami League’s former general secretary Salahuddin Ahmed.

Later, the election commission and the High Court cancelled Salahuddin Ahmed’s candidature declaring him a loan defaulter. This led the governing party to extend its support to Kalyan Party’s Syed Muhammad Ibrahim in the constituency.

In a video message, Jafar Alam told the people of Chakaria and Pekua, “I contested in the 12th parliamentary elections with ‘truck’ as my electoral symbol. The people of Chakaria and Pekua supported me unequivocally. Realising this a certain intelligence agency and BGB members started occupying different centres beating out my agents after 12:00 pm and stuffing ballots. They even injured the presiding officer brutally. As a result, I thought it is better to stay away from the election than leading to any casualty in the process of preventing this. This is what I have done. I’m grateful to you all. I was by your side and will stay.”