Journalist arrested in Bangladesh for reporting on 'election irregularities'

A Bangladeshi journalist was arrested and another was on the run Wednesday for publishing "false information" about voting irregularities in an election won by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, police said.

Hedayet Hossain Mollah, who works for the Dhaka Tribune newspaper, was detained late Tuesday under a controversial digital security law which rights groups say gives authorities broad powers to stifle dissent.

Mollah reported that in Khulna 1 constituency, 22,419 more ballots were cast than the number of registered voters, the Dhaka Tribune quoted the police as saying.

He was arrested on Tuesday in Khulna under the Digital Security Act following an FIR by Khulna's Assistant Returning Officer Debashish Chowdhury, senior police officer Mahbubur Rahman said.

If convicted Mollah could face up to 14 years in jail under a draconian anti-press law that was toughed by Hasina last year.

The FIR also named Rashedul Islam, another journalist associated with local daily Manabzamin. He was yet to be arrested.

"Initial investigations suggest that they were based on false information," Inspector Sarkar Ibrahim Sohel, who is in charge of the investigation, said. He said that the Election Commission was informed before the case was filed.

The arrest of the journalist comes two days after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League and its allies won the general elections, bagging 288 of the total 299 seats which went to the polls.

The jailed ex-premier Khalida Zia-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which won five seats in the 300-member Parliament, has rejected the poll outcome as "farcical" and demanded a fresh election, amid allegations of intimidation.

The election was marred by violence, in which 17 people died. The Election Commission (EC) ruled out holding fresh polls. The opposition Jatiya Oikya Front - National Unity Front (NUF) - comprising the BNP and some smaller parties, criticized the EC and accused its chief of being biased.