More than 100,000 ballots were invalidated in the referendum held across the four parliamentary constituencies of Moulvibazar district, election officials said on Friday.
A total of 8,82,639 voters participated in the referendum, with 4,45,743 casting “Yes” votes and 3,33,766 opting for “No”.
However, 1,03,130 ballots were declared invalid, representing nearly 11.7 percent of the total votes cast.
Officials attributed the high rate of invalidation to ballots missing seals or bearing multiple seals, which violated voting procedures.
Election sources described the figure as significant, noting that a referendum’s two-option format should normally result in a lower rejection rate.
They said the high number of invalid votes may have been caused by voter confusion, failure to follow instructions, or inadvertent stamping at multiple locations on the ballot paper.
