Egregious rigging in Barisal uncovered

If any more proof were needed of the government's rigging of the election, you can find it if you dig down into the constituency results at a polling station level.

The Daily Star has done this in the district of Barisal - with the most egregious constituency being the constituency of Barisal-1 which had a total of 115 polling centres/stations.


The BNP candidate Jahiruddin Swapan received:

- 0 votes in 26 stations

- 1 vote in 9 station

- less than 10 votes in 40 stations.

The BNP candidate received a total of 1,305 votes

The AL candidate, Abul Hasnat Abdullah, received 211,507 votes. 

In seven polling stations the AL candidate received every single vote - not a single vote from any of the other candidates (there was a third party, the Islami Andolan Bangladesh)

The AL candidate, Hasnat, received 98.7% of the vote.

These two candidates have faced each other before, 17 years earlier.

In the 2001 polls, Swapan (BNP) beat Hasnat (AL) by around 14,000 votes. BNP got 81,791 votes while the AL obtained 67,760 votes.

This must constitute one of the biggest swings from one party to another in the history of 'democratic' elections.

In the 2008 elections, there was also a close contest between the AL and BNP - with different candidates. The AL candidate received 98,245 votes and the BNP secured 70,969 votes.

You will notice how carefully The Daily Star has written this article. 

For example, rather than having a headline which could reasonably read, "Polling station data suggest rigging in Barisal" it reads, "Voting Pattern in Barishal Dist: From well-contested to lopsided". 

This is what is known as media self-censorship