A number of voters in 10 polling centres under Dhaka 18 constituency alleged to have found different names by their voter ID numbers on the voter’s list, on the day of 10th national parliamentary election yesterday.
Mir Afroz Jaman, 60, a service holder, said: “I went to one of the centres to cast a ballot but found name of some unknown person with my serial number. How is that possible? I have never experienced such corruption and mismanagement in previous elections.”
Of the 200 polling centres in the constituency, 10 were set up inside Uttara High School and College with 22,451 enlisted voters from Uttara sector 1, 3, 7 and 9, comprising 9863 females and 12588 males.
Neither voters nor polling officers were seen in most of the centres until 9am. Presiding Officer of centre 5 Mobarak Hossain said: “They [polling officers] would arrive within five minutes.”
However, the officers started arriving after half an hour.
Another voter Abdul Mannan, lost his national ID and could not remember the serial number.
Finding his name of the list, he reported to Abdul Jalil, the Presiding Officer of the centre who asked for his date of birth to cross-check.
As he replied that he did not know his date of birth the two engaged in a fumed argument, however, eventually the officer permitted him to cast a vote.
After casting the vote Mannan left the centre without receiving the black mark on his thumb nail. This correspondent found him at a different centre again, but he fled the scene when approached.
Fahmidur Rahman Fahim, a first-time voter said: “The government anticipated that the new voters might vote against Awami League that is why they did not enlist them. This is a conspiracy.”
An elderly voter Ali Hyder Chowdhury said: “I have casted vote thrice in my lifetime so far but never before had witnessed such mismanagement.”
Expressed anger over the mismanagement, Hasib Sultan 28, a service holder, said: “I have been roaming since one hour but no one is able to tell me which centre is holding voters from sector 3. I am fed up.”
The polling agent of centre 7 and 9 Zafar Khan claimed around 3000 votes were cast whereas the presiding officers claimed 200 votes were cast in total.
Also, polling officers of centre 5 said the number of present voters was 120 around 3.55pm while Presiding Officer Mobarak Hossain claimed the number to be 200 at that time.
Although a number of polling agents of Awami league were seen, no agent of Bangladesh Nationalist Front were found there.
