Life, a non-government development organisation, in its report on the Dhaka-10 by-election held on July 1 said 50 per cent of the votes cast were false.

Two mobile teams of Life observed the casting of votes from beginning to endin 35 centers.

The report said that though the environment outside the polling centres appeared normal the situation inside was full ofirregularities.

It said the turnout of female voters was meagre by Bangladesh standard. They also found that the agents of 'Kula' (winnowing fan) were forced out of the centres and the election officials were compelled to work in favour of the ruling party candidate.

The Life report alleged that massive rigging took place and many genuine voters failed to exercise their right to franchise. The observers also detected cases of bribing of voters in and around the polling centres and saw open campaign for the ruling party candidate breaching election code of conduct.

They affirmed that the High Court order for deployment of army at all the centres was violated.

Life also put forward some suggestions to hold the future elections in a free and fair manner.