Dhaka: BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi demanded a judicial inquiry into voting, vote counting and results of the election to Narayanganj City Corporation held on Thursday.

‘Considering BNP candidate Shakhawat Hossain’s allegations of vote rigging, it’s urgent to investigate the matter,’ he told a press conference at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office on Friday.

‘BNP believes in democracy and respects public opinion in public representative election. If the polls result reflects public opinion in true sense, then we’ll welcome it,’ he said.

He alleged that an atmosphere of fair election was created in Nararayeanganj and then Selina Hayet Ivy was declared as the winner.

Referring to the allegation of Shakhawat, he said there were 1,000 voters in one centre but when the result was announced it showed that ‘Boat’ symbol bagged 800 votes, while the ‘Sheaf of Paddy’ 500. ‘Later, the presiding officer concerned changed it, so we can’t ignore Shakawat’s allegation.’ said the BNP leader.

Besides, the results of 144 centers with the signatures of presiding officers were not supplied to the poling agents of BNP, he alleged.

‘People are sceptical about what happened at night under cover of tight security of law enforcers as they were the custodian of all voting instruments,’ he said adding, ‘If army had been  deployed there would have been little chance of any irregularities.’