Police in favour of sending ballot boxes to polling centres on the day before election

The election commission (EC) is mulling sending ballot boxes to polling centres across the country except for the remote areas on the morning of the election day to avoid any allegation or controversy over voting taking place at night instead of daylight. But many senior police officials think such a plan of the commission is not practical. Security might be an issue to send the ballot boxes to the polling stations on the morning of the election day, they think.

Many police officials are in favour of carrying the ballot boxes to the polling stations on the previous day of voting. They pointed out that it is very difficult to send ballot boxes to the polling stations on the morning of the election day due to a lack of human resources. The police officials placed such plans before the EC during the training for organising the upcoming 12th parliamentary election.

The matter of sending ballot boxes was discussed during a session on the first day of the two-day training that ended on Sunday.  Many of the police officials did not agree to the commission’s plan on various grounds. However, the police have not informed the commission anything officially yet.

A total of 117 officials including divisional commissioners, deputy inspector generals of police (DIGs), police commissioners, deputy commissioners, superintendents of police (SPs) and regional election officers took part in the training, and several deputy commissioners (DC) agreed to what the police said.

Usually, ballot boxes are sent to polling stations on the previous afternoon or evening of the polling day during the parliamentary elections. Presiding officers and law enforcement agencies took ballot papers to the polling stations on the previous day. However, opposition parties including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) alleged ballots were stuffed at various voting centres on the night before the polls day during the 11th parliamentary election on 30 December 2018.

The then election commissioner Mahbub Talukder also spoke of this severe allegation. In an interview with Prothom Alo, published on 7 February 2022, late Mahbub Talukder called the 11th parliamentary election ‘a shameful failure’.

He said, “The BBC journalist published pictures of the ballot boxes being stuffed on the night before the 11th Jatiya Sangsad (national parliament) elections. This was an established fact and there was no scope for any other interpretation.”

In the wake of allegations and controversies over night-time voting, since taking charges the incumbent election commission has been saying that they have been mulling sending the ballot boxes to the polling centres on the morning of election day. Ballot boxes will be sent to the remote hill, haor, and char areas on the day before the polls. The commission sent ballot boxes to polling stations on the morning of the voting day during all the elections it conducted since it took office in February 2022. Besides, election commissioners - Md Alamgir and Md Anisur Rahman - told journalists in August this year that the commission was mulling sending ballot papers to polling centres except for remote and char areas during the next national election.

According to sources concerned, the matter of sending ballot papers on the morning of the voting day came up during a session of the training on Saturday. Three secretaries of the government were trainers at the session and they raised the matter before the participants and sought their opinions. At that time, several police officials said the police were mainly responsible for maintaining security during transporting ballot papers to polling stations.

If all ballot papers are sent to the voting centres on the morning of the election day, it will create trouble because, by that time, a large number of police will remain deployed to maintain law and order at the polling stations. This lack of human resources could create a problem to ensure security while transporting ballot papers to polling stations on the morning of the election day. On the other hand, if police members go to certain offices to bring ballot papers on the morning of the voting day, security at polling stations might be disrupted.

Several officials said sending ballot papers on the morning of the voting day during local government elections or by-elections does not create problems as the elections are held in small areas and adequate law enforcement members also remain deployed. But when a nationwide election will be held on a single day, a crisis in human resources will arise. Pressure will mount if ballots are to be taken to the polling centres on the morning of the voting day.

According to the sources concerned, several police officials said voting will take place in winter, and there might be trouble on roads due to foggy weather in the winter. Some said ballot papers can be sent on the morning of the voting day in remote areas, while on the voting day in nearby areas of Sadar and where communication is better.

The secretaries directed the officials attending that session to assist the commission by all means, as well as advised them not to do anything over enthusiastically.

Replying to a query on what the commission is thinking about several police officials and DCs’ opinions on sending ballot papers to polling stations on the day before the election, election commissioner Md Alamgir told newspersons on Sunday that nothing has been decided as yet. There has been discussion on sending ballot papers on the voting day to areas where it is possible, and sending those on the previous day to areas where it is not possible to send on the day of voting. But nothing has been finalised yet, he added.

The election commissioner insisted that the matter will be decided during the announcement of the election schedule.

According to the election commission, the 12th national election is due at the end of December this year or early January next year. There will be a little over 42,000 polling stations in 300 constituencies. The commission thinks it is possible to send ballot papers to all the polling stations on the morning of the voting day except char, haor and remote hill areas because communication is better everywhere.

The commission has been planning to send the ballot papers to Sadar upazila of all the districts on the previous day of the election and from there to the voting centres on the voting day. For this, the commission is mulling dividing the voting centres of each constituency into several routes.

Speaking about this, Citizens for Good Governance (SHUJAN) secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar told Prothom Alo that if ballots are to be sent on the morning of the voting day, they will have to reach the district or upazila on the previous night, and there is no guarantee that ballots will not be stuffed there. However, districts and upazila Sadar have relatively better security systems. If ballots are sent to 42,000 polling centres on the night before the election, then there will be more risk of stuffing at night. So, sending ballots to polling stations on the morning of the voting day will be better among these two alternatives, he added.

* This report appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Hasanul Banna