A day after the Barisal City Cooperation election, Manisha Chakraborty, a mayoral aspirant from Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal, yesterday castigated the Election Commission for the alleged rigging and massive irregularities in the polls. 

At a human chain formed near the Town Hall of the city around 11:30am, she demanded cancellation of the city corporation polls, saying it was not an election; rather, it was a vote robbery.

It has been proved that the Election Commission completely failed to hold credible polls, said Manisha, adding that she would go to court if a fresh election is not arranged.

She also had filed a written complaint with the EC for cancellation of the election in the afternoon on the polling day.    

Manisha, the youngest contender for the mayoral post in the city, came under the spotlight for her campaigns accompanied by the common people.

Her courageous acts of catching red-handed those rigging vote were widely appreciated and the video of her activities against the irregularities went viral on social media.   

Manisha claimed she got 1,917 votes before 8:30am as the vote rigging started at different centres afterwards.

Around 9:00am on the voting day, she allegedly came under attack and got injured at Barisal Govt Girls' High School centre where she protested ballot stuffing by ruling party men. 

“The stamping on ballot papers for boat [AL's polls symbol] was done before the polling officer and some ballot books were stamped earlier,” she said at the event.

She vowed to continue her movement against the results of the “rigged polls” taking the common people with her. She also thanked all who supported her protest.

About the written complaint, Md Helal Uddin, assistant returning officer, said any candidate can file complaint with Election Commission for cancellation of election if he or she finds polls not fair. 

The commission would take a decision after investigation, he added.

Manisha started her political career as a BSD activist when she was a first-year student of Sher-e-Bangla Medical College in Barisal in 2007. Since then, she took up different programmes for the rights of the middle class and poor people.

Completing her graduation from the medical college, she started to give free treatment among the poor in different slums of the city.

Though Manisha was qualified in 34th Bangladesh Civil Service exams, she did not join the government job for continuing her activism and politics.