Zahir Raihan, staff correspondent of Prothom Alo, was inside the polling centre, watching the irregularities and rigging being carried out. He took some pictures on his mobile phone too. This angered the presiding officer of the centre, Azizul Huq. He started questioning Zahir Raihan as to why he had entered the polling centre, whose permission had he taken, why he was taking pictures and so on. He tried to grab the correspondent’s mobile phone, leaving Raihan’s hand bleeding.
The presiding officer then snatched the mobile phone away and handed it over to a local Awami League activist who was on duty at the centre. The AL man deleted all the pictures from the phone. The presiding officer then handed over the mobile to a police officer.
The incident took place at 12 noon on Monday at the Collegiate School of Hujeritola in Dhamrai pourashava of Dhaka. Zahir was still bleeding and Prothom Alo’s staff correspondent of Savar, Arup Rai, took him to hospital. After first aid, Zahir is now in Dhamrai. He had got his mobile phone back from the police.
This incident began at 11:45am when Prothom Alo’s staff correspondents Zahir Raihan and Arup Rai went to the voting centre to gather news on the polls. They entered the centre after speaking to the police on duty outside.
According to the election commission’s rules, there are no restrictions on journalists entering the polling centres with their authorised cards. The journalists can go anywhere around the centre except into the booth where the votes are cast. They are permitted to take photographs too.
The moment they entered the centre, all sorts of irregularities caught the attention of the two correspondents.
Voters came up complaining that the voting was being delayed. Other people were casting he votes for the mayor candidate. When the voters were relating all this to Arup Rai, Dhamrai’s upazila engineer and presiding officer of the centre, Azizul Huq, came up.
He exchanged words with Arup:
Azizul: Who are you?”
Arup: A journalist.
Azizul: Why have you entered here?
Arup: For news.
Azizul: Who have you the permission to enter?
Arup: The Election Commission.
Azizul: Stay outside of the centre.
Arup: But I have the permission to enter.
Azizul: Unless I give permission, there is no permission.
The voters at that juncture came up and stated making all sorts of complaints to the presiding officer and the presiding officer quickly moved away. He noticed Zahir taking pictures and lost his temper.
He angrily asked why he was taking pictures, saying pictures of irregularities or anything else would have to be taken outside the voting centre. No photographs could be taken inside the centre. He then tried to grab the phone and Zahir’s hand got cut and started bleeding. The presiding officer snatched the phone then. He handed it over to an Awami League activist with a boat badge and told him to check it. The AL man deleted the pictures and handed the mobile back to the presiding officer.
The presiding officer handed the phone over to the police officer in charge of the centre. When returning officer Munir Hossain was informed of the incident, he requested the journalists not to mind about the happening. He said pictures of irregularities in the secret voting booth couldn’t be taken. Pictures could be taken outside.
Zahir Raihan said he hadn’t taken any pictures inside the secret booth. The EVM to cast votes for the mayor candidate had been placed outside of the booth.
The voters cast their ballots for the councilors inside the secret booth, but their votes for the mayor candidate were being cast by persons with the Awami League boat symbol badges.
Arup Rai said they reported the entire matter to the upazila nirbahi officer Samiul Huq and the officer-in-charge of the local police station, Deepak Chandra Saha.
There were three mayoral candidates in Dhamrai – Awami League’s pourashava president Golam Kabir, BNP’s pourashava president Dewan Nazim Uddin and a candidate of Islami Andolan.