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Mismanagement mars voter list success

Ahmed Ali, Sayeda Akter, M Abul Kalam Azad and Sarwar A Chowdhury
Thousands of voters in the capital could not vote yesterday despite repeated frantic attempts, due to an apparent mismanagement of the much ballyhooed successful voter list by the Election Commission (EC).
Voters who could not exercise their right to franchise despite having legitimate voter numbers printed on their national ID cards, returned home disappointed often with tearful eyes.
The fallout of the mismanagement even culminated in a temporary internment of a deputy election commissioner in the hands of irate voters who failed to cast their votes in a compound of polling centres in Dhaka-12.
Abdul Awal, a freedom fighter of sector-2 during the liberation war, now living in North Bcgunbari of Tejgaon area under Dhaka-11, had to return home without casting his vote to form tire next government of the country he had risked his life for.
He tried all through the day to find his number on the lists in numerous polling centres, but in vain, despite having a national ID card with his voter number printed on iL
"My name was not found on the voter lists and I could not vote being a freedom fighter. Nothing could be more disappointing," he sadly said adding, "I travelled from Chittagong last night to cast my vote, but not a single polling officer nor any presiding officer could find my name on the lists, they could not even tell me what to do."
Finally, whenever he saw a media person he was pouring hishcartsout
Awal was not alone. Similar incidents were seen all over the capital.
There were five polling centres in the joint compound of Dhanmondi Government Girls' High Shchool, and Quamrunnesa Government Girls' High School with a total number of 14,400 voters. But no less than a thousand voters had to leave the compound without getting a chance to cast their votes in any one of the five centres, according to many who could not vote.
Many came there as a last resort for exercising their right to franchise after being ricocheted from centres to centres while many others waited there since the start of voting at 8:00am.
Many government and EC high officials visited tire compound situated in the heart of Dhanmondi, a posh area where many influential people of the city reside, according to voters who were outside the centres around 3:30pm still waiting to cast theirvotes.
Many of them gave the aggrieved waiting voters assurances that they would .convey, the predicament of the voters to the EC, so measures could be taken to solve the problem before it was too late.
In the meantime, tempers were rising high on both sides of the ballot boxes, with altercations breaking out among the waiting voters and polling officials.
Finally, the voters could not stay calm in the face of what they felt was nothing but an indignation for them by that time.
And the timing was terribly wrong for Deputy Election Commissioner Biswas Lutfor Rahman's arrival at the compound, as his vehicle was instantly surrounded by howling angry voters who waited all day to vote, in vain.
He assured the voters of his willingness to try solving their predicament and went in. Soon there was a call for waiting voters with national ID cards to line up in front of one of the centres, with a promise that they would be allowed to vote, after crosschecking their numbers with an army database over the telephone.
Instantly about 500 to 700 voters lined up with clock ticking way past the 4:00pm deadline for stopping the polling, while none was yet called in to vote.
Voters started getting angrier, and at one point when the deputy election commissioner was trying to leave the compound with people still lined up, he got pushed back by them into a room, with police guarding the entrance.
The siege went on for about two hours with the deputy election commissioner having repeated conversations with the EC, while angry voters were chanting slogans out side the room.
By 7:00pm most of the despondent failed voters left the compound, and the election commission official came out of the room, and apologetically told the remaining small number of waiting people that he was unable to help them realise their right to vote in the 9th parliamentary election, ending the tension peacefully, before leaving the compound hurriedly and unencumbered.
Outside a very small group of people was still locked in an altercation with police who were keeping their calm, as a daughter of a liberation war martyr said at one point, "We were insulted today."
Md Shahriar Bhuiyan, a 26-year old voter of Dhanmondi Road 11 said seven members in his family voted in that compound of centres, but his name was not found on the list He tried for over two hours and then gave up, as it was already too late.
Dr Khalid of Dhanmondi Road 14/A said he waited since 8:00am to cast his vote, but to no avail. After forwarding slowly through a long queue of voters, the authorities on the scene noted down his ID number and said there was nothing they could do to help him.
Bela! Hossain, a New York resident, planned his holiday matching it with the election date, just to be able to vote. But afterwaitingforhours, hehadto leave the centre with his family without voting and feeling extremely frustrated, while saying it felt worse because, before his travel, he had been assured by government officials that he would be able to cast his vote peacefully.
Hundreds of voters had to return home from Mirpur Government High School polling centre too without voting.
"Officials at the polling centre asked us to collect the voter serial numbers from outside, but we don't know from whom and where we can get it," said Rina Begum at Gulshan |Model Sphool and College polling centre.
Many others also returned home from polling centres in Hazaribagh, without voting due to the same mismanagement.
Asked about the mayhem of mismanagement in polling centres in the capital, Chief Election Commissioner ATM (CEC) Shamsul Huda at Gulshan Model School and College centre said they asked the voters to collect their serial numbers from the campaigners for local candidates.
"We requested the voters even last night that they should collect their voter serial numbers from candidates' representatives," said the CEC adding, "They have set many counters outside the polling centres."
Samira, a first time voter, criticised the role of the EC, saying it should have been the EC's responsibility to make sure that no voter would return home from polling centres without voting, the onus should not have been on the candidates.
Many questioned, what is the point of having a perfect voter list, if so many voters in a city cannot find their polling centres, and fail to vote?
Meanwhile, it was a mess all day long in Narayanganj Govt Girls Primary School too.
The situation continued even after the scheduled voting ended at4:00pm.
A few thousand voters were still waiting there to exercise their voting rights as the nonstop 8 hours voting time could cover only 30 percent of the total 16,000 electorates.
Voters were queuing up in the centre till filing of this report at 6:30pm, and the chaos also continued.
There was no proper indication about how to stand in a queue. The voters were confused about in which line they should stand to cast votes. They blasted the EC and the local administration for their miseries.
Afaz Uddin of West Masdair came to the centre before voting began and it was about 1:00pm, he was still searching for his voter number. In between, he took several desperate attempts to cast his vote showing the national ID card only to be rejected. Polling officials asked him to bring the voter number from political party volunteers sitting outside the centre.
"I will continue trying until the vote casting ends," a desperate Afaj told The Daily Star, adding, "No one from presiding officer to party volunteers in the polling centre is helping me."
Even he sought help of on duty policemen and journalists.
Finding no way, the aggrieved voters staged a demonstration protesting the mismanagement which was subsequently brought under control by law enforcers.
The deputy commissioner and police superintendent also rushed there around 12:00 noon.
Law enforcers were seen struggling to control the huge number of voters, who were becoming agitated queuing in lines for hours. The voting was disrupted several times.
At a polling booth only SO voters were able to cast votes until 1:30pm whereas the booth was supposed to take votes from 540 persons until 4:00pm. Scenes at other booths were similar too.
"We are not giving ballot papers on the basis of national ID cards. We are giving ballot papers against the voter list numbers," said Shah Alam, a presiding officer in the centre.