BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was elected unofficially from Bogura-6 constituency in the 11th parliamentary elections held on Sunday.

Election Commission (EC) Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed announced the unofficial results of all 141 polling centers of the constituency.

Fakhrul bagged 205987 votes with “sheaf of paddy” symbol while his nearest rival Jatiya Party candidate Nurul Islam Omar got 39,961 votes with “plough” symbol.

But, the BNP secretary general was defeated by AL candidate Ramesh Chandra Sen in Thakurgaon-1 constituency.

Sen bagged 2,25,795 votes with ‘boat’ symbol in all 175 centers while his nearest contestant Fakhrul got 1,27,067 votes with ‘sheaf of paddy’ symbol. Thakurgaon-1 constituency lies in Fakhrul’s home district.

The BNP had as many as 141 nominations rejected while their rival the ruling Awami League only had three, sources in the Election Commission said. 

The BNP nominated 696 leaders in 295 seats as part of its strategy to field multiple candidates in almost all constituencies. It opted for this strategy fearing some candidates would be rejected by the EC on various grounds, including conviction in cases and defaulting on loans.

The ruling AL fielded 281 candidates in 264 constituencies with multiple candidates in 17 seats.

According to an EC statement, the returning officers during scrutiny on Sunday rejected 786 (25.64 percent) of the 3,065 nominations on the grounds of being convicted, defaulting on loans, and non-payment of utility bills.

In the 2008 parliamentary polls, the ROs rejected 557 (22.64 percent) of 2,460 nominations.

Aspirants, whose nominations were rejected, can appeal to the EC by tomorrow. The EC would start hearing the appeals from Thursday.

BNP leader Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin, Gonoforum candidate Reza Kibria and 82 others have appealed to the EC yesterday.

Nasiruddin's nomination was rejected for being convicted in a graft case in 2008 and Kibria's was rejected for failing to pay the fee for a credit card.

The BNP may file appeals today or tomorrow against the ROs decision to reject all three nominations of its Chairperson Khaleda Zia, party sources said.

Khaleda has been in jail since February 8 after being sentenced to five years in prison in a graft case. She was also sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in another corruption case in October.

She filed three nominations -- Bogura-6, -7 and Feni-1.

Meanwhile, most of the 23 candidates rejected in Rajshahi did not get the certified copy of the rejections even yesterday.

The document is required for an appeal to be filed with the EC.

According to EC sources, the Jatiya Party had filed 233 nominations and 38 of them were rejected.

At least three dozen dissidents of ruling AL were rejected by the ROs, a blessing for the ruling party. The party still has over three dozen more rebels to deal with, said a senior AL leader.

He said the party, this time, will not hesitate to take stern action against dissidents. AL high command would try to ensure that the remaining dissidents quit on or before December 9, the last day for withdrawal of candidature.

“If needed, the prime minister will intervene … one thing is sure that the rebels will not be returning to the party, even if they win,” said the leader.

Most of the lawmakers-elect of the Jatiya Party yesterday said the party should join the Awami League-led new government.

The opinion came at a joint meeting of JP presidium members and MPs-elect at the party chief's Banani office, JP Co-chairman GM Quader told reporters after the meeting.

The party's parliamentary body will decide its role in the 11th parliament.

“Our newly elected MPs will join the parliamentary party meeting tomorrow [today] after taking the oath,” Quader added.

Meanwhile, the oath-taking ceremony of MPs-elect will be held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban today, said a parliament secretariat press release yesterday. 

At 11:00am, Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury will administer the oath.

At the briefing, Quader said, “The parliamentary party meeting will decide what will be the Jatiya Party's role in parliament, considering the interest of the country and the grand alliance."

He added that they would talk about the issue with the alliance after the meeting.

“We are in the grand alliance and contested the election with the alliance partners with identical goals. So, we'll finalise all the decisions through discussions."

The JP co-chairman, who presided over yesterday's meeting, said they discussed the country's political situation at the joint meeting.

Party Secretary General Moshiur Rahman Ranga said they would take some organisational steps to strengthen the party.

He added that parliamentary party members would sit with the AL-led grand alliance to determine the party's role in parliament.

JP Chairman HM Ershad and Senior Co-chairman Raushan Ershad were not present at the meeting.

On Tuesday, Moshiur said they would decide yesterday whether they would remain as the opposition or part of government in the House.

OFFICIAL POLLS RESULTS

In another development, the Election Commission yesterday in its official results said the AL bagged 257 seats and the JP 22 seats in Sunday's national election.

Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda at a post-election press conference on Monday and EC Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed at the end of announcement of unofficial results of the polls said the AL won in 259 constituencies and the JP in 20.

EC officials said they made the mistake while preparing the list of all winning candidates hurriedly.

The commission yesterday published a gazette notification of all 298 winning candidates.

According to the official results of the December 30 polls, the AL-led grand alliance bagged 288 seats while the BNP-led Jatiya Oikyafront got seven.

Voting was suspended at three polling stations in Brahmanbaria-2 over violence. Voting in those centres will be held on January 9.

Election in Gaibandha-3 was rescheduled for January 27 after Oikyafront candidate TIM Fazley Rabbi died on December 20.