EC men yet to show up in many city areas

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Several thousand eligible voters at Nobhodoy Housing Project area and Gabtoli Beribandh City Colony in the capital have not yet been enrolled as voters.
Most residents in the localities now see little hope of being included in the voter list as field level Election Commission (EC) staff did not visit their houses until yesterday, the eighth day of correction of the updated voter roll.

In Gazipur, agitated voters beat up an assistant registration officer (ARO) as he deleted the names of around 500 voters of Baimail village in Sadar upazila from the updated list on Thursday.

Residents of Gabtoli colony where mainly class four employees of Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) reside alleged that out of about 1,800 eligible voters, only around 300 were included in the updated list. Some EC staff on Wednesday visited the house of a BNP leader at the colony and went back without going to any other houses.

“Awami League (AL) has always been at an advantageous position at the colony as majority of the residents support it in any elections,” said Monir Hossain a resident of the colony.

The DCC shifted the colony to its present site in Mirpur from Gulshan around 14 months back.

Sixty-year-old Samiran, a sweeper, said she and three other members of her family have not yet been registered as voters. Arif, 22, who lives at Lane No 13 in the colony, said none of the 72 houses in their lane has yet been listed as voter.

The picture is even more bleak at Nobhodoy Housing Project in Adabor where, according to locals, around 4,000 people have never been enrolled as voter.

“Around 4,000 eligible voters at Nobhodoy project have not yet been listed,” rickshaw mechanic Asgar Bepari of the area told this correspondent yesterday. Asked how authentic his claim is, he said he has come to know this from many residents of the housing project who are acquainted with him as he has professional contacts with them.

A number of locals including Abul Kalam Azad, Amena Khatun, Mohammad Mohsin and Baby, who gathered around this correspondent at the time, supported his claim. They said about three fourths of people living in the project area, mainly low income groups like rickshawpullers and day labourers, have not been enrolled.

Asgar said he along with his family has been residing in the area for the last 10 years and cast vote in the 2001 elections, but this time he and his wife were deleted from the list.

Abul Kalam Azad said 32 families having at least two eligible voters each have been residing in a slum on his four-katha plot on Road No 2 in the area for the last few years, but none of them has yet been enrolled.

The locals also said the EC staff are yet to visit their locality.

A frustrated Mohsin, residing the area for the last 12 years, said neither he nor his wife was ever enrolled as voters.

Our Gazipur correspondent reports: Some residents of Baimail village having voter serial Nos 1701, 1733, 1702, 1635, 0099, 0018, 0094, 1409, 1262, 0078 and 0018 noticed that their names along with those of around 500 others were deleted from the voter roll of 2000 with red ink, which enraged them.

Asked about the reason behind the deletion, the EC staff told them that ARO Nazrul Islam had deleted their names. Later, some of the enraged voters rushed to the Distressed Children Rehabilitation and Training Centre and assaulted Nazrul.

Gazipur Sadar Upazila Election Officer Motiur Rahman admitted the incident.

Our Netrakona correspondent adds: EC field staff said they could not list 99 indigenous Garo, Hajong and Hadhi people of two bordering villages– Guchchagram and Ranikong– due to severe shortage of voter registration forms.

Our Nilphamari correspondent reports: The names of over 20 thousand stranded Pakistanis in 22 Geneva camps in Saidpur upazila, who were included in the voter list, have not yet been deleted due to the influence of big political parties.

The names of only 653 residents of Geneva camps, where 60,000 stranded Pakistanis reside, were deleted till yesterday.

Saidpur Upazila Election Officer Abdul Hakim Mondol said he had asked the field staff to visit all the 22 camps to detect and delete the stranded Pakistanis from the voter list. He alleged that no political parties, either big or small, are cooperating with the staff in deleting their names.

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