Bangladesh News

Voters braved heavy rain, long queues from slow voting and widespread confusion over the new voter lists, to turn out in huge numbers for Sylhet’s mayor and local council elections yesterday under tight security and with the state of emergency in full force.

Although there were no reports of vote rigging, there were scattered reports of names missing on the voter list and fake votes being cast despite heavy presence of police, ansar and the Rapid Action Battalion personnel.

Long queues of voters snaked out of polling centres as soon as the polls opened at 8:00am with many lining up since 7:00am. Voter turnout was high with some centres reporting higher women turnouts than men.

Heavy downpour kept a large number of voters at home early yesterday but those who did ignore the rain faced confusion over their national ID cards and voter serial numbers.

A large number of voters left the polls without casting their ballots after spending hours trying to find out their voter serial numbers while others were simply turned away.

Yusuf Ali, a voter at Government Pilot Boys High School polling centre in Kalighat, said, “I am going home and I have not cast my vote. I have been turned away four times from the booth because I did not have a voter serial number and then when I got it, they could not find it on the list.”

Presiding officer of that polling centre Md Mossabir Chowdhury told The Daily Star, “It is not our duty to provide the serial numbers.”

Outside the polling centre a number of electoral campaign workers for mayoral and councillor candidates said security officials prevented them from setting up camps to help voters. “It was a fault in their [the Election Commission] preparations and not ours,” said an AL leader also a campaign worker.

They added that given the short campaign period before the elections, they were not able to go door to door and provide these details to voters.

Three voters at the Khashdabir Government Boys School polling centre lodged formal complaints that somebody else had cast their votes.

Belal of Gowaripara, voter ID number of 91962051447131, said he found somebody had already cast his vote at 2:00pm. Jahangir, voter ID number 9196205144588, and Mosammat Rahima Khatoon, voter ID number 9196205145799, also faced similar problems.

Meanwhile, several presiding officers cited difficulty adapting to the new voter identification system, voter lists with photographs and ID cards for the delays.

A number of presiding officers also feared that they might not be able to accommodate all the voters who had queued up because the voting was so slow.

The delays also caused a number of voters to leave without casting their ballots; many of them were women.

Mayor candidate, BNP-backed MA Haque, told The Daily Star “Voters suffered because of mismanagement and slow vote-casting but the voter turnout was good.”

Meanwhile, councillor candidate Selim Ahmed Roni was picked up and arrested by police after he had a heated argument with a presiding officer.

About 250 people were seen in queue in front of the Bilash Community Centre at 6:00om. The picture was the same at Priojon Community Centre.

Voting continued till filing this report at 6:00pm as voting was slow. Priojon Community Centre and Bilash Community Centre at Chowkidekhi, Kazi Jalal Uddin Government Primary School at Kazitola, Ambarkhana Government Colony Primary School at Ambarkhana, Jalalia Government Primary School at Dargah Mohalla and Shah Mir Primary School at Shahi Eidgah are the polling centres where voting could go on till 7:00pm, sources said.