100pc voter turnout tells a different tale

The election commission has published full results of eleventh parliamentary election on its website six months after the election. The full results has brought to light an abnormal scenario of voting with as many as 213 polling centers of 103 constituencies seeing a strange 100 per cent voter turnout.

The citizen’s platform Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan) has said that such a turnout is not believable at all. Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda himself agreed that 100 per cent turnout was abnormal.

The statistics has spawned all sorts of debate and discussions. Shujan carries out election related activities along with other activities. They have published an analysis of the center-based full results published by the EC. According to the analysis, 96-99 per cent votes were cast in 1,205 polling centers while 6,484 centers had seen 90-95 per cent turnout. Another 15,719 centers had a turnout of 80-89 per cent.

Election monitoring group Fair Election Monitoring Alliance (FEMA) president Munira Khan told BBC Bangla Service, “This is ridiculous. What doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world can’t happen here. We have seen (such abnormal turnout) only during the regimes of military dictators.” She thinks that in the context of Bangladesh, any polling center with over 70 per cent turnout should come under EC’s scanner. EC itself should look into the matter. (BBC Bangla Online, 4 July, 2019)

CEC Nurul Huda, however, shrugged off EC’s responsibility. Speaking at a programme on 30 June, Huda said, “A hundred per cent turnout is not normal, but EC has nothing to do with it since the presiding officers dispose all the electoral matters at the canters immediately after balloting. Returning officers then sent cumulative results to us. Nobody informed us of the matters then and EC has nothing to do about it.” (Ittefaq, 1 July, 2019)

Shujan held the press conference on 9 July, publishing their study. According to them, there are 40,155 polling stations for 300 constituencies throughout the country. Turnout was between 80 to 100 per cent in 23,621 polling centers. And 33,694 centers saw over 70 per cent turnout. According to their analysis, average, the turnout was 80.20 per cent.

The flipside is striking too

There is also contrasting scenario which are no less striking. Turnout was less than 10 per cent in 11 centres. And 10-19 per cent votes were cast in 20 centres and 20-39 per cent votes were cast in 301 centres.

In some centres, turnout was even less than 5 per cent. Only 1.87 per cent votes were cast in the Millennium Stars School and College polling station of Rangpur-3 constituency which is located besides the Rangpur cantonment. Turnout was less than 3 per cent in three centres of Bogura-7 constituency. Those centres are- Jahangirabad Cantonment Board High School, Bogura Cantonment Board High School (male centre) and Bogura Cantonment Board High School (female centre).

100 per cent turnout is not credible

According to the Shujan analysis, Chattogram and Rangpur division were leading in 100 per cent voter turnout. A total of 9 centers saw 100 per cent turnout in Rangpur-5 constituency. And 8 centers of Brahminbaria-2, 7 centers each of Chattogram-8 and Rangpur-2, 6 centers each of Lalmonirhat-3 and Rangpur-6 saw cent per cent turnout. Four centers of Chattogram-5, Cox’s Bazar-3, Mymensingh-2, Mymensingh-10, Dinajpur-1, Gaibandha-4, Naogaon-3 and Sylhet-4 saw 100 per cent voter turnout.

Election analysts think that 100 per cent turnout is impossible under any circumstances. Because, elections are not conducted immediately after voter lists are prepared. Someone might die, fall ill, be in jail or move to other places in the interval period.

About such an abnormal turnout, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told Prothom Alo, “What happened on 30 December can’t be called an election. That’s why we rejected the result of that election.” He said that publishing full results after six long months proves that EC was involved in election engineering. EC’s partisanship was very evident and still is.

A total of 181 centres among the 213 where 100 per cent votes were cast were in 90 constituencies where Awami League candidates won. And 21 centres were in 10 constituencies where JaPa candidates won. Then 8 centres were in a constituency where BNP candidate won, 2 were in a seat where Bikalpadhara Bangladesh candidate won and 1 centre were located in a constituency where JSD candidate won.

BNP candidate Ukil Abdus Sattar won from Brahminbaria-2 constituency where 100 per cent votes were cast in 8 centers. Total votes of those 8 centres are 23,197. Moin Uddin with electoral symbol bunch of banana got highest numbers of votes in those centers. BNP candidate Sattar with sheaf of paddy symbol did not get a single vote in 5 out of those 8 centres. He managed to get only four votes in three other centers. Moin Uddin is central vice president of Awami League’s associate body Shecchwasebak League. He contested independently after failing to get Awami League’s nomination. Awami League left this seat vacant for its alliance partner Jatiya Party and did not field any candidate.

Shujan analysis also revealed that 71.83 per cent of legal votes were cast in boat (AL’s electoral symbol) in those 213 centres. Sheaf of paddy (BNP’s symbol) got 14.63 per cent in those centres, JaPa’s electoral symbol plough got 7.19 per cent, Islami Andolon got 1.17 per cent with the symbol ‘haat pakha’ (hand fan), Independent candidates got 2.44 per cent and others got less than 1 per cent in those 213 centres.

Shujan raised the question as to whether 100 per cent turnout was possible in the stipulated time of voting. Awami League’s joint secretary general Mahbubul Alam Hanif on 9 July told Prothom Alo that 100 per cent turnout is not a new phenomenon in Bangladesh. It happened during regimes of Ziaur Rahman and Khaleda Zia.

One of the election commissioners, Rafiqul Islam, however, has come up with a rather queer logic to defend that turnout. He said, it cannot be said that turnout was 100 per cent in those centres because some of the votes were rejected.

Shujan analysis said that overall turnout in 11th parliamentary election was 80.20 per cent, second highest of the 6 elections (except 15 February 1996 election) held after 1991. The highest turnout was 87.13 per cent in ninth parliamentary election of 2008 and lowest was 40.04 per cent in tenth parliamentary election.

Candidates from 38 political parties and independent candidates participated in 30 December election. BNP has been alleging since the very beginning that ballot boxes were stuffed the night before election. In the run up to the election, BNP leaders and activists were kept on the run by filing countless ‘fictitious cases’. In most of the centres, BNP or their alliance partners did not have any polling agents during the election day. Presence of voters was meagre in most of the centres. According to news published in BBC Bangla on election day, a BBC journalist found a ballot box stuffed with ballot papers even before voting started at Shaheednagar City Corporation Girl’s High School centre of Chattogram-10 constituency.

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) published a study on eleventh parliamentary election on 15 January. They found electoral irregularities in 47 out of 50 constituencies. TIB’s executive director Iftekharuzzaman told BBC, “The election was questionable for breach of electoral code of conduct. This election has been barely credible to many for such an unprecedented nature of it.’ (BBC Bangla, 15 January 2019).

Shujan secretary Badiul Alam Majumder also termed 100 per cent turnout in 213 centres as unbelievable.
*Tipu Sultan is a special correspondent of Prothom Alo. This report appeared in the print edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Galib Ashraf