The remarkable enthusiasm of first-time voters showed during the city corporation elections yesterday was marred by the even bigger presence of fake voters.
Hundreds of young students were found posing as voters at polling centres in the Dhaka University areas in the city corporation elections yesterday.
There were two scenarios in the polling centres.
The real first-time voters were easily identifiable, busy taking selfies after casting their votes. They seemed to be happy just being able to vote; but many went to polling centres only to find that their votes had already been cast.
One such voter, seeking anonymity, said finding that someone else had cast their votes would definitely discourage young voters from exercising their right to vote in future.
The other group, who also posed as “first-time voters,” however, seemed more keen to keep their heads down and get as many ballot papers inside the ballot box as possible.
A young woman was caught red-handed while trying to cast the vote of an elderly woman at the Curzon Hall centre. She had also claimed to be a first-time voter.
She kept pleading with the polling officials, saying: “Please, let me cast the votes.” Later, pushed by some polling agents, the polling officials let her cast votes illegally.
Like her, many young men and women – some of whom seemed underaged – queued up at the polling centre asking to be allowed to cast votes on behalf of the absent voters, mostly those who had previously been resident students of Dhaka University but had graduated and no longer lived in the area.
Polling officers failed to prevent such illicit voting despite having adequate security.
When questioned about the vote rigging, the polling officers said they were helpless.
They said they had been threatened to silence by Bangladesh Chhatra League leaders of Shahidullah Hall and Fazlul Haque Hall.
“We cannot take any action if no incident of such vote rigging is reported,” Hiran Chowdhury, presiding officer of Curzon Hall polling centre, told the Dhaka Tribune.
When asked why they were so eager to cast other people’s votes, the fake voters said they were following their seniors’ instruction. But when asked about who these “seniors” were, they were reluctant to answer.
One of the fake voters, asking not to be named, told the Dhaka Tribune: “Not all of us are here by choice. We are resident students. We were forced to come here by the senior Chhatra League leaders in our hall. Not coming here would most likely result in us losing our place in the dormitory.”
And then he hurried towards a polling booth.
