AL-backed candidates win Brahmanbaria-2 and Lakshmipur-3 by-polls

Awami League-backed candidates won the Brahmanbaria-2 and Lakshmipur-3 by-elections on Sunday amid allegations of irregularities.

According to unofficial results, Shahjahan Alam Saju was elected in Brahmanbaria-2 constituency while Golam Faruque Pinku won Lakshmipur-3.

Voting started at 8am, and continued till 4pm without any break.

In Brahmanbaria, Saju bagged 66,314 votes while nearest rival independent candidate Ziaul Haque Mridha got 37, 758 votes, according to the returning officer.

In Lakshmipur, Golam Faruque bagged 120,599 votes while National People‍‍`s Party Candidate Selim Mahmud earned 3,842 votes, said Farhad Hossain, the returning officer of the election.

In Brahmanbaria, independent candidate Ziaul Haque Mridha brought allegations of ballot stamping against his opponent during voting.

Meanwhile, two candidates of the by-elections to Laxmipur-3 constituency boycotted the election at a press conference on Sunday afternoon.

The candidates, Mohammad Rakib Hossain of Jatiya Party and Shamsul Karim Khokon of Zaker Party, said agents of Awami League candidate Golam Faruk Pinku were casting fake votes and restricting other party‍‍`s agents from several centers.

They said that they did not get any response from authority.

They boycotted the election, saying that it was not possible to continue the voting process in this situation.

Earlier, on October 1, the parliament secretariat declared the two seats vacant, following the deaths of Lakshmipur-3 lawmaker AKM Shajahan Kamal and Brahmanbaria-2 lawmaker Abdus Sattar Bhuiyan.