Voting through electronic voting machines in the Dhaka city polls was extensively manipulated on Saturday as supporters of the ruling Awami League candidates pressed EVM buttons just after voters finished their primary verification with their finger prints on the machines.
Incidents of AL men preventing voters from going inside the polling booth after their primary verifications and forcibly accompanying voters while getting inside the booth were found commonplace during visits to polling centres at places.
The controversial electronic voting system, which had been selectively used in the last general elections, was used for the entire polling in the two Dhaka cities despite objections from the opposition candidates.
Voters alleged that they were denied pressing the buttons for their intended symbols on the EVM just as paper-ballots were stuffed into the box denying voters to cast their vote.
‘It’s neither the voting machine nor the method but the situation in the polling centre which is crucial for ensuring a fair election,’ said Emran Hossain, a voter in Gulshan.
During visits to different polling centres, New Age found the gross irregularity of AL men pressing buttons, depriving voters, on EVMs.
AL supporters drove out a female voter bearing Islam for the last name from her polling booth at the Kalabagan Staff Quarters centre on Green Road after she was going ahead to press the EVM button.
‘They [supporters of Dhaka south AL mayoral candidate Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh] shadowed me from the entry point to the booth all the way,’ said the voter.
‘When I got inside the booth after finishing my primary verification on the EVM, they cast my vote, forcing me away physically,’ she said.
‘I had to leave the centre as they threatened me when I protested against their conduct,’ she said.
Irregularities were found beginning from the morning at the Tejgaon College centre near Farmgate.
At about 9:15am, a large number of supporters of the ruling party’s mayoral candidate for the Dhaka north city were seen to take positions inside the polling centre rooms.
Two men were spotted in a polling booth, made by hanging curtains, at a corner of the polling room at the centre.
When they came out, one was found wearing the badge of AL mayoral candidate Atiqul Islam.
When New Age asked the polling officers and the AL supporter about what had been going inside the booth along with the voter, a group of AL men roaming around the room tried to assault the New Age journalists, who at one stage had to leave the centre fearing reprisal.
At the Banani Bidya Niketan School centre, it was found that assistant presiding officer Moushumi Lashkar and polling officer Tania Islam were allowing AL people to go inside the booths along with the voters.
When New Age asked them about the matter, they straight away lied about such a man that it was their officer assisting the voters who could not cast their votes on the EVM.
But the man, who too said that he was not an election officer, was wearing the badge for AL mayoral candidate Atiqul.
The polling centre’s presiding officer, Touhid Hossain, said that they would not allow any more people to go inside the booths along with the voters, but the same practice was found to continue after a while.
At the centres at Gulshan Model High School and College as well as Kalachandpur Primary School the picture was no different.
In the same fashion, AL supporters were accompanying the voters inside the polling booths at those polling stations, New Age found.
Gulshan centre presiding officer Sakhawat Hossain, however, declined to comment on the irregularity while the presiding officer was not found present at the Kalachandpur centre.
The social media, including Facebook, abounded with voters sharing similar experiences.
