He votes 'on-camera'

Shamim Osman, a ruling Awami League MP, on Thursday cast his vote for once his arch enemy yet his party nominee this time Selina Hayat Ivy in the Narayanganj mayoral polls.

Conspicuously, he did it in public, showing to the newsmen the ballot paper marked with AL election symbol boat allocated to Ivy.

Asked by the AL president and prime minister Sheikh Hasina to work for party nominee Ivy, Shamim Osman apparently gave proof of his loyalty to the party while exercising franchise at the Narayanganj Bar Academy polling station.

When a journalist asked him if he could vote publicly, the AL MP said, "You journalists were running out of election news. So, I wanted to please you by bleeding myself."

However, the Representation of People Order 1972 speaks of "secret ballot" for deciding an election. “An election under this Order shall be decided by secret ballot,” read article 26 of the RPO.

Another the RPO article stipulates that a presiding officer shall make such arrangements at the polling station that every elector may be able to mark his ballot paper in secret before the same is folded and inserted in the ballot box.

Shamim Osman also said, "The voting has been a fair one... People will watch a landslide victory of 'Nouka' [Boat]."

Voting in the Narayanganj City Corporation elections concluded Thursday afternoon with no untoward incident or any such allegations about balloting.

The voting began at 8:00am and continued till 4:00pm without any interruption. Counting of votes has already started.

Selina Hayat Ivy contested the maiden Narayanganj City Corporation elections against the then AL backed mayoral candidate Shamim Osman going against the party decision and became the mayor of Narayanganj in 2011.