Retired army major Abdul Mannan of Bikalpa Dhara, the key rival of alliance candidate Mosaddak Ali Falu, filed a complaint with the Election Commission (EC) at 1:40pm and appealed for cancelling the polls that he called farcical.

The EC rejected the demand for poll cancellation, but acting Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Safiur Rahman said: "The High Court (HC) order was flouted and there was no polling agent of Bikalpa Dhara at most centres. Voting was unrealistic at some centres."

The HC on June 29 directed the government to deploy required numbers of army personnel at each polling centre for the by-election to the constituency that fell vacant with the resignation of Mannan from the House and the ruling BNP on March 10.

"The parliamentary by-election was marred by high instances of fraud -- enough to call into question the validity of the final results, no matter who wins," the National Election Observation Council, a non-governmental poll monitor, says in a report.

"What was remarkable was casting of false votes for the ruling alliance candidate," says the Coordinating Council for Human-Rights in Bangladesh, an association of more than 250 human-rights and development organisations.

The Bikalpa Dhara candidate vowed to challenge the issue in court. "We will move the High Court again against the violation of the court order and appeal for election cancellation," said Mannan, who was chased out of a polling centre in Nakhalpara, when he went there to visit.

The voter turnout was low, with women and the elderly distancing themselves from voting in a break with the usual pattern of election, poll observers said.

Gangs of marauding youths, most aged between 18 and 25, forced their way into the polling centres and stuffed ballots into boxes in an apparent breach of voting norms drawing flak from the Awami League and other opposition parties that threw their weight behind Bikalpa Dhara.

Thousands of activists mobilised by the alliance leaders arrived in Ramna-Tejgaon constituency from outside in buses and trucks early yesterday and rushed to most of the 103 polling centres.

Fake voters from Demra, Lalbagh, Kamrangir Char, Motijheel and Sabujbagh 'cast' votes mostly between 8:00am and 10:00am. Later, they hung around at different polling centres.

The Daily Star talked to a political activist, who is not a voter nor a Dhaka-10 resident, who claimed to have cast more than 50 votes. "I was tired of vote casting," was the candid comment of Faruk of Shahjahanpur who 'cast' votes at the Ispahani Girls School centre.

Journalists and observers saw the ruling BNP activists forcing Bikalpa Dhara polling agents out of different centres such as Tejgaon Government Primary School, Tejgaon Government College, Rajdhani High School, Nazrul Shikkhalay, Ispahani Girls School and Shahnoori Boys and High School and Central Public Library.

The activists chased the Bikalpa Dhara candidate out of Hossain Ali Primary School in Nakhalpara when he was visiting the polling centre at about 9:00am. He left the place in a press car.

"The government did not deploy the army at each polling centre despite the High Court order. Our voters and polling agents were driven away. I had no option but to boycott the election and appealed to the Election Commission to cancel it," Mannan told reporters.

Witnesses saw the army patrolling roads, not polling centres. But Home Secretary Omar Farruk brushed aside the allegation and said: "The army was deployed in line with the court directive."

Bikalpa Dhara's chief election agent Mahi B Chowdhury said in a written complaint: "The army was not deployed at all centres. When my candidate and I sought an explanation from on-duty army officer Major Akbar at 8.30am, he said he did not get any instruction on that. It became clear that the government has flouted the High Court order."

He also complained that the BNP candidate and his supporters took over all voting centres and 'cast' votes at will, adding: "They brought busloads of party supporters and criminal elements to the constituency from outside to cast votes."

Acting CEC Safiur Rahman visited five polling stations in the wake of allegations and told newspersons: "I have seen what was happening there and I will speak about it after 4:00pm."

Magistrates, assigned to supervise army deployment, said they did not receive information from authorities about army dispatch to each polling centre.

"I did not see any army personnel and know nothing about it. I was not informed about army deployment," Magistrate Tajul Islam told The Daily Star at 8:30am from the Glass and Ceramic Institute centre in Tejgaon.

Another magistrate Shamsul Arefin, who was on duty at the 13 No. polling centre, said he was not informed about the guideline that army personnel would be under his supervision. Presiding officers echoed his voice.

"No army personnel were found inside the polling centre. I saw them at 8:30am patrolling the street close to the polling centre," said Rafiqul Islam, presiding officer at Tejgaon Industrial Area Primary School.

A few polling agents of Mannan, found on duty at different centres, were too scared to identify themselves to journalists apparently because of intimidation. But Falu's polling agents were seen at all polling booths, some with two agents each.

BNP Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan at a press conference in Dhaka denied the allegation of election-hour disorder and thanked the EC for what he said was a peaceful election. "Bikalpa Dhara took part in the election only to bring an allegation of rigging against the BNP," he said.