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UZ Polls in Nilpiiamari

33,110 ballots cancelled for six chairman posts

51,427 ballots for vice-chairman, 65, 412 for female vice-chairman also invalid

Our Correspondent, Nilphamari
A staggering 33,110 ballots for upazila chairman posts, SI,427 ballots for vice-chairman posts and 65,412 ballots for female vice-chairman posts were cancelled in six upazilas under the district in Thursday's upazila election.
The invalid votes for three posts constitute 4.35, 6.75 and 8.59 percent of the total 7,61,823 cast votes in the district as the voters had to cast votes in three kinds of ballots.
Compared with the invalid votes in December 29 parliament election, such votes in the upazila election is about five times higher for chairman posts, seven times higher for vice-chairman posts and nine times higher for female vice-chairman posts, district elec-
tion office sources said.
The setting of election symbols in two columns in the ballot papers and keeping more symbols than the number of candidates led to the cancellation of a large number of votes, said polling agents and voters.
In the recent parliament election, 9,961 votes were cancelled in six upazilas constituting four constituencies in the district. It is 1.09 percent of the total 9,11,930 cast votes in the district where the total number of votes is 10,13,595 as per the latest voter lists.
As the symbols in the ballots were set in the ballot papers in two columns side by side, in many cases, the voting seal ink on a chosen symbol also left the impression on the symbol of the other column or another symbol of the same line while folding ballot papers, vertically or horizontally, a number of polling
agents told this correspondent
They found the errors during vote counting.
Many voters said they were confused as there were no names of the candidates beside their respective election symbols and there were more symbols than the number of candidates on three different ballot papers.
Many voters put seal impression on a symbol for which no candidate is running.
As per the newly introduced rules for the recently held upazila election, 10 symbols were printed on ballots where the number of candidates ranged from 2 to 10. The ballots had to contain 14 symbols for 11 to 14 candidates and 18 symbols for 15 to 18 candidates.
For the upazila chairman post, there were five candidates each in Sadar and Domar upazilas, six candi-
dates in Dimla, nine in Kishoreganj, seven in Saldpur and six in Jaldhaka upazila. A multiple number of candidates also contested in each upazila for vice-chairman and female vice-chairman posts.
"Most of the voters were not aware about arrangement of symbols on two columns of the ballot papers. There would be less invalid ballots if the information department arranged massive campaign about voting correctly," said Gabul Saqlain, district chapter convenor of SUJON (Susashoncr Jonno Nagorik --Citizens for good governance).
"The candidates failed to give voters a clear idea about their symbols. As a result many voters put seal on wrong symbols. Errors were also made while folding ballot papers after casting votes," Nilphamari District Election Officer SakanderAli said.