Dhaka: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) senior leader Gayeshwar Chandra Roy on Tuesday alleged that there was no vote dacoity but stealing in the Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) polls held on Thursday.

“There was no vote dacoity in the Narayanganj election. What happened in the daylight was very nice. But it’s unknown what happed in the dark of night. That’s why it seems to me vote was not robbed of, but stolen,” he said.

Speaking at a discussion, Gayeshwar, who was the chief coordinator of BNP mayoral candidate’s electioneering, further said, “I’ve earlier said apparently the election was fair, but the results were as the difference of vote margin is unbelievable.”  

Voice of Democracy, a pro-BNP platform, arranged the programme at National Press Club.

Awami League mayoral candidate Salina Hayat Ivy was unofficially reelected NCC mayor defeating BNP contestant Shakhawat Hossain Khan by a big margin of 79,567 votes in Thursday’s election.

According to the unofficial results, Ivy bagged 175,611 votes while Shakhawat polled 96,044.

Gayeshwar said the Election Commission showed 39 percent to 83 percent votes were cast at the polling stations, but many centers witnessed the thin presence of voters.

He said there were very few voters at many poling stations before 9am while many others were voter less after 2-3pm. So, as to how 83 percent votes were cast at some centres though those were vacant after 3:00pm.”

The BNP leader said their party is now examining the results to know whether there was any engineering. “We’ve got greater number of councillors than the ruling party’s, and their vote margin with mayoral candidate is huge. So, we need to look into the matter.”

Gayeshwar said they have started talking to their party mayoral and councillor candidates and their polling agents to asses the election results.