A safe haven for ballot stuffing

A gang of youths forcibly enters booth at the polling station of Madinatul Ulum Senior Madrasa in 26 no. ward in Gazipur, snatches ballot papers and votes for boat on 26 June. Photo: Prothom Alo
A gang of youths forcibly enters booth at the polling station of Madinatul Ulum Senior Madrasa in 26 no. ward in Gazipur, snatches ballot papers and votes for boat on 26 June. Photo: Prothom Alo

It was around 10:20am on Tuesday when the assistant presiding officer at a booth in Pubail Adrasha College centre handed over a voter the stamp and three ballot papers - one for mayoral post, one for councillor and the other for councillor post reserved for woman - in Gazipur civic polls.

A man wearing ruling Awami League's badge snatched the ballot at once and stamped AL's election symbol ‘boat’ for the party’s candidate Jahangir Alam.

Such incident of ballot stuffing was a familiar scenario at the college centre throughout the day.

This Prothom Alo correspondent witnessed a group of miscreants entering the polling station around 11:30am and started stamping the ballot papers on election symbol ‘boat’ right after the assistant returning officer, Nazmul Islam, had visited the centre.

The supporters of two AL candidates for councillors were even at loggerheads over stamping the ballots at the time.

There were 3,364 voters at the Pubail Adarsha College centre. One of the the eight booths there had no agent of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party's (BNP) candidates.

The BNP agents at remaining booths alleged that they were being threatened by miscreants wearing boat badges. The agents were seen covering their ID cards at the time.

This correspondent asked a man ‘why he was stamping boat symbol snatching ballot paper from common voters’ at a booth.

The man, however, left the room immediately without answering the question.

Expressing his ‘helplessness’, when asked, the presiding officer said, “I told him several times not to do so, but he did not listen to me.”

Assistant returning officer Nazmul Islam came to visit the centre after the incident. When asked, he claimed, “There are no irregularities at the centre.”

He then asked the officers to make the centre restricted for outsiders.

However, several men wearing AL badge took positions at the centre the moment Nazmul Islam left the polling station.

The picture was no different at booth no. 8 and 6 of the centre.

A man in white panjabi was seen stamping ballot papers on symbol boat at booth no. 8. He was identified as a former Gazipur city president of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student wing of the ruling AL.

Another former joint secretary of Pubail Union BCL was seen stamping ballots at booth no. 6.

Outside the centre, the ruling and the opposition activists set up their camps for attracting the voters.

However, no agent was found at the camp of BNP’s mayoral candidate Hasan Uddin Sarker although there were posters only.