Referendum Riddle: Tushar’s Tally Triggers Tension
Debater-turned-presenter and television talk show commentator Abdun Noor Tushar has raised questions over the fate of 44.1 million votes in the February 12 referendum. In a post shared on his verified Facebook page, he questioned the discrepancy—only to later remove the post without any explanation. However, before its deletion, the content had already been copied and republished in his name by hundreds of Facebook accounts.
In the now-viral post published on the night of February 13, Tushar claimed that a total of 32.5 million votes were cast in the referendum, combining both ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ votes. He contrasted this with the reported 76.6 million voters who participated in the election, asking where the remaining 44.1 million votes had gone.
However, according to the official gazette published by the Election Commission of Bangladesh in the early hours of February 14, the total number of votes cast in the referendum—combining both ‘Yes’ and ‘No’—stood at 77,695,023. Of these, 7,422,637 votes were declared invalid due to improper voting procedures. The total number of valid votes cast was 70,272,386.
In light of the official figures, Tushar’s Facebook post has been widely regarded as based on fabricated and imaginary data. Although he later deleted the post, discussions and speculation fueled by the misleading statistics continue to circulate across social media platforms.
DBTech/SI/MI/OR
