A voter finding out his polling centre through using NID number on mobile phone outside Abujar Gifari College polling centre in the city on Sunday — FE photo A significant number of voters failed to cast their votes on Sunday because of a mismatch between their serial numbers on the voter lists despite having national identity (NID) or smart NID cards with them.
The voters could not find their names on the voter list inside despite collecting their serial numbers from the volunteers outside the polling centres.
The glitch left the voters puzzled at the polling centres.
Failing to get their serial numbers at the polling centres, many voters were seen seeking help from the presiding officers, polling officers and polling agents, but they failed.
Many of them could not find their serial numbers even from the website of Bangladesh Election Commission (BEC) due to slow internet speed and suspension of mobile internet service during polling hours.
Many voters also typed 'PC<space>NID number' and sent it to '105' as per instructions from the EC to receive information about their polling centres and serial numbers via a return message, but they did not get SMS (short message service) in time.
The FE correspondents who visited different polling stations witnessed such an awkward situation the voters in the city had to face.
A senior journalist said he failed to cast his vote at Segunbagicha polling centre as he could not find out his serial number on the voters' list.
Nazneen Sultana, a voter who came to cast her vote at the Kamalapur BRTC Bus Depot polling centre around 11:30 am, said she found neither any person from the Election Commission nor got any help from the presiding officer in finding out the serial number to cast her vote.
Parveen Akhtar, another voter of this centre, echoed the same as she also failed to cast her vote due to not finding out her serial number on the voters' list.
Both the young female voters showed their NID numbers to many voters who were in the queue to cast their votes.
There should have a link between the voters' serial numbers and NID or smart NID numbers to find out the serial numbers, they said.
Kohinoor Begum, 60, went to cast her vote at Mirza Abbas Women Degree College centre around 11:00 am but she went back home with frustration as she could not find out her voter serial number neither herself nor by designated polling officers.
A resident of Shantinagar area Marzina Newaz (55) visited three separate polling centres but failed to search out her serial number to cast her vote.
Preferring anonymity another voter said he sent SMS typing PC<space>NID number and sent it to '105' at 1:00 pm but got return SMS around 4:50 pm, 50 minutes after voting ended.
"So, I could not cast my vote," he said.
When asked about such situation, Presiding Officer of Kamalapur BRTC Bus Depot polling Centre Abdus Salam Sardar admitted to having problem. Though he was aware of this, it went beyond his capacity to do anything about this, he added.
"I don't have any mechanism to provide voters with serial numbers or information about polling centres," he admitted.
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