Informing CEC, DC and SP about the situation, none called: Returning officer

The returning officer of Cumilla City Corporation elections, Shahedunnabi Chowdhury, has claimed that the allegation of the election result being altered because of a phone call is true.

He said that he was talking to the chief election commissioner, deputy commissioner and superintendent of police about the situation of that time on the phone.

In reply to the question with whom he was talking to again and again during the result announcement, Shahedunnabi Chowdhury said, “I was informing the CEC, DC and SP about the situation, that was created due to leaders and activists of the two parties taking position against each other while the results of the election were being announced."

"No one else had called. It is being hinted by one group of a candidate that the results had been changed because of a phone call, but, that is not correct," he added.

The returning officer answered different questions while talking to newsmen at the district election office on Thursday afternoon.

Followers of Awami League candidate Arfanul Haque (Rifat) and independent candidate Monirul Haque (Sakku) created a chaos during the announcement of the city corporation polls results. The chaos was created by the rumours of both of the candidate winning the polls right before the announcement of results.

Because of the chaos, the announcement was suspended for almost an hour. Later Arfanul was declared mayor unofficially by the returning officer. Arfanur was shown winner with a difference of 343 votes between him and Monirul.

When asked why the result announcement was suspended for more than half an hour, he said, “There were no other reasons behind this except the chaos. It took time as the situation was unfavourable. Both of the parties were responsible for the creation of the undesirable situation.”