Voters in several polling stations in the Narayanganj City Corporation elections have faced trouble while casting their ballots in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) on Sunday.
The slow voting due to confusion over using EVMs and technical glitches has caused long queues at many voting centres at the industrial city.
A number of voters at the Deobhog Shishubagh Primary School centre complained of not being able to vote as the fingerprint scanners failed to identify them.
“I have been waiting since 9am and its 11am now, but could not cast my vote. The officials say my fingerprints are not matching,” said Aftab Mia.
“It was better before; just stamp the ballot and leave. It has been two hours,” he said.
Several other voters echoed.
After waiting for nearly two hours, Asia Begum is yet to exercise her franchise.
“My fingerprints are not matching. And it did not work even after washing my hands with soap. I was told to go to the presiding officer, who has asked me to come later,” she told Dhaka Tribune.
It’s taking more than 10 minutes to cast a single vote at the centre.
“I have been here for quite a while now and it’s taking over 10 minutes to vote. Many people were facing trouble with fingerprint scanning,” said Nur Hossain before adding that the slow voting process means that all the voters will not be able to cast their ballots by 4pm.
Polling officer Nurun Nahar said that the voting process was slower than usual. “The main problem is fingerprint mismatch.
Officials say that there have been several cases of fingerprint mismatch.
“Voters whose fingerprints are not matching have been told to bring their national ID cards,” said Narayan Chandra Mandal, a polling officer at the centre.
Voters at the Morgan School and College polling station also complained of facing difficulties with EVMs.
Abdul Alim was seen leaving the centre without casting his vote.
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“I couldn’t vote after waiting for 30 minutes as the fingerprint scanner failed to identify me,” the agitated 40-year-old said. “I have waited so long.”
The centre’s Presiding Officer Ramzan Ali said that they have been facing some technical issues.
“There have been some cases of fingerprint mismatch, especially with the elderly. In some cases, the issue is with voters’ prints on hands. But the problems have been solved, we hope to cast all votes within 4pm.”
At the Ekrampur Primary School Mosammat Fatema and thirty others were waiting in the queue for more than hour.
A policeman posted at the center was seen putting petroleum jelly on hands of the voters in queue.
“It helps to solve the issue of the fingerprint mismatch,” Constable Mohammad Hanif told Dhaka Tribune.
Similar situation was found at the Bibi Marium School voting centre at the city. Long queues were found at the centre as voters were facing difficulties in using EVMs, which is slowing down the balloting.
“Out of the eight voters, who came in the first 30 minutes after the polls opened, only three could cast their ballots. The others left without exercising their franchises,” said Aleya Begum, a polling agent of a councilor candidate at the centre.
According to her, many voters were confused about the process to cast their ballots in electronic machines.
Presiding Officer Mahbubur Rahman said that there have been some difficulties at the beginning.
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“Some female voters were confused about the process, but they were able to vote after it was explained to them. I am aware of some cases of fingerprint scanners failing to identify the voters. They were told to wait as their hands were sweating, but they left without casting their votes,” he said.
The slow voting due to confusion over using EVMs and technical glitches has caused long queues at several polling stations.
Polls officials said in some cases it took 20 minutes to cast a single vote while voters say people will lose interest if casting a vote takes so long.
Defective EVM leaves female voters waiting for hours
A defective EVM at the Govt Kadam Rasul College polling station left female voters waiting for hours, resulting in long queues. Some of them even returned home without casting their votes.
Madhobi Rani Roy came to the polling station at 11am but had to go back after waiting for 2 hours.
M Zahid Hasan, a data entry operator, said: "The EVM stopped working just two minutes ago. We are trying to fix it. We have four more machines. If we cannot not fix the machine, we will use those."
However, Dhaka Tribune found that officials had been trying to fix the EVM for over 30 minutes.
Elderly women at the polling station had to wait for hours due to technical glitches, such as issues with fingerprint recognition.
Bibi Khodeza, 70, told Dhaka Tribune: “This is probably the last vote of my life. I really want to cast my vote but I have been waiting for too long.”
Meanwhile, Rafiqul Islam, the centre’s presiding officer, said: "I was not present there when the EVM machine stopped working. I had the audit card with me at the time, as a result of which the machine was not working. But it has now been fixed.”
"Some voters' fingerprints patterns have changed due to chopping and grinding food, thus their fingerprints did not match,” he said.
Of the 3,387 female voters at the centre, 667 had cast their votes till 1:30pm.
Narayanganj residents are voting to pick its mayor and 36 councillors, in an election that can be expected to be a departure from the recent violence-ridden polls to the union parishads.
Incumbent mayor Selina Hayat Ivy is locking horns with Taimur Alam Khandakar, an independent candidate.
The election is being closely watched across the country as it is one of the final tests for the outgoing Election Commission.
This is the first election in the country that is being held exclusively on electronic voting machines (EVMs).