BNP candidate Mirza Faisal Amin, the younger brother of President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, has won the Thakurgaon-1 by-election with a decisive margin, securing 227,917 votes.
His nearest rival, Delawar Hossain of Jamaat-e-Islami (contesting under the scales symbol as part of the 11-party alliance), received 96,513 votes, resulting in a victory margin of approximately 131,404 votes.
The Returning Officer and Thakurgaon District Election Officer, Mohammad Kamrul Islam (also referred to as Quamrul or Md Kamrul Islam), unofficially declared the result around 9:30–9:45 pm on Thursday, October 29, 2026.
Other candidates received negligible support: Khademul Islam (Islami Andolan Bangladesh, hand fan) got 3,289 votes; Md Abdul Alim Nizami (Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan, banyan tree) received 836; and Hussain Muhammad Omar Faruk (Bangladesh Congress, coconut) got 450.
Voting ran from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm across 185 polling centres (989 booths). Of the constituency’s 516,138 registered voters (including over 130,000 Hindu voters), 334,330 votes were cast for a turnout of 64.81%. Valid votes numbered 329,005, with 5,325 rejected due to technical or procedural errors.
The seat had fallen vacant after Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, elected from Thakurgaon-1 in the February 12, 2026, 13th National Parliament election, was sworn in as the country’s 23rd president.
In that February national poll, Fakhrul received 238,836 votes against Delawar Hossain’s 141,017 (a margin of 97,819). This by-election marks Delawar’s second consecutive defeat in the seat, and with a wider gap and fewer votes than before.
After the result, Faisal Amin addressed supporters at the district BNP office, thanking voters and calling the outcome “a victory of truth over falsehood,” the victory of ordinary people, and a win for BNP workers at all levels. He pledged to focus on local development, peace, and communal harmony.
Jamaat’s Allegations of Irregularities
Jamaat-e-Islami rejected the fairness of the process. At a press conference on Thursday afternoon at the party’s central office in Moghbazar, Dhaka, Secretary General and former MP Mia Golam Porwar (also spelled Parwar) alleged pre-stamped and pre-signed ballot book counterfoils at several centres, obstruction of voters, intimidation, ejection of election agents, money distribution, and pressure on Hindu voters and government employees/teachers. He claimed a woman voter was told her vote had already been cast, and that officials lacked proper photo ID cards in some cases.
Jamaat said these practices created opportunities for fake voting and undermined free choice. The party had earlier submitted a nine-point written complaint and demands (including army deployment) to the Chief Election Commissioner, followed by further complaints from the 11-party alliance, but claimed no effective remedies were provided.
Porwar questioned the neutrality of local administration, including the Thakurgaon Sadar Upazila Nirbahi Officer, and called for investigations and action against those responsible.
Election authorities, including the EC Senior Secretary, described the polling as largely peaceful and satisfactory, with no major untoward incidents reported during the day. Some local reporting noted irregularities or mismanagement at a limited number of centres.
Echoes of February 12 National Election Allegations
These claims mirror the wave of rigging, ballot-stuffing, and vote-buying allegations that arose around the February 12, 2026, national elections. On the evening of February 11 and into polling day, parties across the spectrum—including Jamaat-led alliances, BNP figures, Islami Andolan, and even the banned Awami League (which described the process as a “farce” involving centre seizures, pre-stamping of ballots from the previous night, money distribution, and agent signatures on result sheets)—raised similar accusations.
Social media circulated videos and claims of early stamping and stuffing; the 11-party alliance formally complained to the EC about agents being driven out and forced stamping in multiple constituencies; and Transparency International Bangladesh later noted ballot-stuffing incidents in a sample of constituencies alongside widespread code-of-conduct violations. Dozens of election petitions were filed afterward, and isolated cases led to arrests or officials being withdrawn.
While international observers and the EC generally assessed the national polls as credible and competitive overall, the recurring pattern of pre-polling and election-day allegations of administrative bias, advance ballot preparation, intimidation, and vote-buying has resurfaced in this by-election, underscoring persistent concerns about electoral integrity in Bangladesh.
The by-election result consolidates BNP’s hold on the seat while Jamaat’s challenge continues to centre on process rather than solely on the vote count.