Dhaka, Feb 14 (NationPress) The fact-checking organization of Bangladesh, Dismislab, has successfully refuted a systematic social media initiative that claimed manipulation by a so-called “deep state” led to the radical Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami and its affiliates losing numerous seats due to alleged “election engineering”, according to a report released on Saturday.

On February 13, the day following the elections, narratives emerged asserting that Jamaat candidates suffered defeats in 53 constituencies by margins of under 5,000 votes.

A report from the 'Times of Bangladesh' highlighted a viral post questioning why Jamaat’s leader, Shafiqur Rahman, accepted the election results, insinuating that “deep state” interference slashed the party’s anticipated 135 seats down to between 70 and 80.

Based on a seat-wise analysis published by Prothom Alo, a leading newspaper in Bangladesh, Dismislab indicated that these figures are misleading, revealing that only 22 seats were decided by margins of fewer than 5,000 votes, contrary to the reported 53.

The analysis indicated that close victory margins affected both major political alliances rather than favoring one side.

“Jamaat or allied candidates secured the two tightest races in the country: Madaripur-1 (with a margin of 385 votes) and Sirajganj-4 (594 votes). On the other hand, candidates supported by BNP achieved narrow wins in Cox’s Bazar-4, Chattogram-14, and Brahmanbaria-5, with margins of 929, 1,026, and 1,061 votes, respectively. An in-depth analysis of the 50 closest races, with margins ranging from 385 to 9,581 votes, indicated that Jamaat and its allies won 24 seats, while BNP and its allies secured 22,” the report elaborated.

Despite the lack of substantive evidence, the report noted that these allegations were significantly spread across social media platforms through individual posts and organized campaigns.

“Identical messages questioning why the Ameer accepted ‘election engineering’ emerged under reports by the media outlet Amar Desh and on the ‘Jobians’ Facebook page, a community for Jagannath University students. One individual even claimed that in 57 seats, the vote margin between Jamaat and BNP candidates was merely between 70 to 5,000 votes,” it stated.

“A verified page named “Tanvir Sir” inaccurately suggested that a coalition with the Pir of Charmonai using the ‘hand-fan’ symbol could have secured an additional 40–50 seats. Moreover, a well-known parody profile named ‘journalist Moniruzzaman’ utilized an image of the Jamaat Ameer appearing ill on stage to imply that the party, given its purported margins, would have dominated more than 200 upazilas,” the report noted.

The report emphasized that after reviewing at least a dozen of such posts and comments, Dismislab concluded that the “narratives were intended to imply Jamaat would have won significantly more seats without a ‘deep state’ conspiracy”.