Suspicion over the fairness of the upcoming elections has grown further after police in Lakshmipur busted a counterfeit operation churning out fake voting seals in a brazen display of electoral sabotage that reeks of desperation. This seizure lays bare the rotten underbelly of Bangladesh’s so-called “democratic” process under the thumb of a Jamaat-controlled Election Commission (EC).
The EC, which has illegally strangled the Awami League’s registration, flouted every shred of neutrality in nomination scrutiny, greenlit loan defaulters and Muhammad Yunus’ cronies to run despite their disqualifications, and funnelled thousands of postal ballots to Jamaat operatives abroad as exposed in viral videos, now stands accused of enabling outright fraud.
Amid the Awami League’s righteous call for a nationwide boycott, this Lakshmipur fiasco is just the latest nail in the coffin of a rigged farce masquerading as an election.
The raid on Mariam Printers in Lakshmipur’s Sadar Municipalityโtipped off by confidential intelligenceโnetted six illicit 16-compartment voting seals, a computer loaded with incriminating files, and a mobile phone harbouring a voice recording of the shadowy puppet-master behind the plot.
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Police arrested Sohel Rana, a 34-year-old printing press owner from Tumchar, who confessed under interrogation to crafting the seals on orders from none other than Sourav Hossain Sharif, the now-expelled secretary of Jamaat’s Ward-4 unit in Lakshmipur municipality.
Sharif, who slithered into hiding after the bust, allegedly commissioned the seals on January 30 via WhatsApp voice messages, with the explicit intent to stuff ballots and steal votes in the upcoming polls.
Police have filed a case against both under electoral fraud laws, but Sharif’s vanishing act screams of Jamaat’s protective web shielding its thugs from justice.
Inspector Jhalak Mohanta of Lakshmipur Sadar police station minced no words in the official statement: “We recovered six election seals, the mobile with the order’s voice recording, and all equipment usedโthe computer and desktop. These are evidence.”
The probe is ongoing, with plans for remand and deeper interrogations to unmask the full network. Yet, in a pathetic dodge, police withheld the order-placer’s name initially “in the interest of the investigation,” only for Sharif’s Jamaat ties to erupt like a festering sore. District Jamaat chief SUM Ruhul Amin Bhuiyan hastily announced Sharif’s expulsion, a token gesture that fools no oneโit’s damage control for a party neck-deep in vote-rigging schemes.
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The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), sniffing blood, pounced on the scandal with righteous fury. Joint Secretary General Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Anee, contesting Lakshmipur-3, blasted it as a “deep conspiracy” and “blueprint for election engineering” orchestrated by Jamaat.
In an emergency press conference, Anee thundered: “The arrested Sohel Rana is a Jamaat activist. There’s a larger network behind thisโa calculated plan to print counterfeit ballots.” He demanded swift probes by the EC and administration, warning of rampant fake voting if unchecked. BNP’s salvo underscores the chaos: even rivals see through Jamaat’s dirty tricks, yet the EC sits idle, complicit in the rot.
After the BNP press conference, Jamaat organised a press conference at Lakshmipur Press Club around 10pm. Jamaat-e-Islami candidate for Lakshmipur-3 constituency, Rezaul Karim, said: “BNP is lying by linking Jamaat with the arrested person with the vote seal.”
He said: “As soon as any incident occurs, the accusation against Jamaat-e-Islami has become a coinage of another party, just like in the past. The arrested Sohel is not from Jamaat. The administration will investigate and find out who is involved in this incident. We strongly condemn and protest such a despicable incident.”
Political observers think that the Jamaat-NCP clique will do anything to rig the election to form the next government. If they cannot, they would foil the election to cling to power, as they dominate the Yunus-led regime. The ECโs postal ballot scandal, transfer of voting area for hundreds of thousands of Jamaat voters, and inaction in cases of violations by the Jamaat-linked candidates confirm that there is a deep conspiracy.
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From exile, the Awami League unleashed a torrent of condemnation, branding the entire electoral charade a Yunus-Jamaat stitch-up designed to bury democracy. Party President and five-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, sentenced in absentia by a kangaroo court, slammed the EC for its bias and demanded international scrutiny.
Her son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, amplified the outrage: “This is just a glimpse of how the Yunus regime is rigging the upcoming election.” Party leaders like Mohammad A. Arafat spearheaded the “No Boat, No Vote” boycott call, urging Bangladeshis to shun the polls as a protest against an “illegal government conducting an illegal election.” The Awami League decried the Lakshmipur incident as symptomatic of systemic fraud, where Jamaat goons forge seals while the EC turns a blind eye.
This isn’t incompetenceโit’s criminal collusion. The Jamaat-infested EC illegally suspended the Awami League’s registration in May 2025, disenfranchising millions and barring the nation’s largest party from the fray, all under the guise of “security threats.” Neutrality? A joke. Nomination scrutiny has been a farce, rubber-stamping candidacies for Yunus loyalists and notorious loan defaulters who wouldn’t qualify under any fair rules. Take the aides of Yunus himself, propped up to contest despite glaring conflicts, while genuine reformers are sidelined.
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Worse, viral videos have flooded social media, exposing the EC’s postal ballot bonanza to Jamaat members abroad. Footage from Bahrain shows stacks of ballots piled at a single address linked to Jamaat leaders, with similar scandals in Oman and Saudi Arabia. The EC feebly “clarified” no irregularities, but BNP and others cried foul, alleging deliberate rigging to pad Jamaat’s votes from expatriates.
Nazrul Islam Khan of BNP demanded punitive action: “Videos of postal ballots at the homes of Jamaat leaders have gone viral. The EC should take immediate steps.” Yet, the commission dithers, proving its Jamaat puppetry.
As the Awami League rallies for a boycott, vowing to obstruct this sham if needed, Bangladesh teeters on the brink.
This Lakshmipur debacle isn’t isolatedโit’s the tip of a rigged iceberg, where Jamaat’s covert tactics, Yunus’ vendetta, and the EC’s corruption conspire to hijack the future. Voters, heed the call: No boat, no vote. Let this farce collapse under its own weight, and demand real democracy, not this Jamaat-orchestrated nightmare.
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