Grand alliance wins 6 Rajshahi seats

All the six grand alliance candidates in Rajshahi constituencies were unofficially declared elected with high turnout of voters in yesterday's historic 9th parliamentary elections.
Shefaul Karim, returning officer and deputy commissioner of Rajshahi, started announcing the final results at around 12:00am.
In Rajshahi-1, Awami League's district unit General Secretary Omar Faruk Chowdhury left behind his nearest rival BNP's newcomer Enamul Haque, former IGP by a margin of 17,327 votes. Faruk bagged 1,46,777 votes while Enamul got 1,29,450 votes.
Worker's Party's politburo member Fazle Hossain Badsha was declared the winner of Rajshahi-2 constituency at around 12:00am. Badsha beat the four-party alliance's Mizanur Rahman Minu by 27,549 votes. Badsha bagged 1,16,599 votes, while Minu got 89,050.
Awami League's new face Miraj Uddin Mollah of Rajshahi-3 beat BNP's former lawmaker Kabir Hossain by 48,838 votes. He secured 1,42,487 votes, while Kabir bagged 93,649 votes. Jamaat-e-Islami candidate Ataur Rahman got 32,527 votes.
In Rajshahi-4, AL candidate Enamul Haque won over BNP's Abdul Gafur by a margin of 24,118 votes. Enamul got 1,07,751 votes while Gafur managed 83,633 votes.
At Rajshahi-5 constituency, AL's Kazi Abdul Wadud Dara beat BNP's Nazrul Islam by 16,315 votes. Dara bagged 1,24,398 while Nazrul got 1,08,083 votes.
AL's newcomer Shahriar Alam of Rajshahi-6 won over Rajshahi BNP's Azizur Rahman.
Local AL decided to refrain from celebrating their victory following directives from the central committee, said Rajshahi AL acting general secretary Shafikur Rahman Badsha.
“We will not celebrate in two days ahead, but our candidates will meet people going to their doors for thanking them,” he added.
With high turnout, voting in the constituencies passed off peacefully, barring some stray incidents and reports of a few fake votes.
Voters started to form long queues at the poling centres even before they opened at 8:00am. Many centres saw a turnout of average 35 percent by 11:00am, which rose to as high as 65 percent by 2:00pm.
The police arrested two BNP adherents for intimidating voters near Sujanagar centre in Rajshahi-2.
A polling officer of Bianabona centre at Deopara in Rajshahi-1 constituency was withdrawn after the polling agents complained that he was a BNP man and appointed on political consideration. The complaint led to tension, resulting in suspension of voting for about 15 minutes.
At Sonadighi Government Primary School centre at Rajshahi-1, the polling agents of Awami League complained that voters were being allowed to enter the polling centre with leaflets containing the election symbol and picture of BNP nominee.
At Kakonhat High School, grand alliance candidate Omar Faruk Chowdhury complained that four people who were visiting the centre as observers of Election Working Group belonged to BNP and they were influencing voters. Later, assistant returning officer rushed to the centre and asked the four observers to leave it.