Many voters find their names missing from lists

FE Team | Published: December 30, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
A number of voters in the capital could not cast their votes in the ninth parliamentary polls that was held Monday as their names were missing from the voters' list.
Despite having the national ID cards, many of them could not exercise their voting right as the voters' lists did not contain their names, the concerned voters and election officials said.
While visiting some polling centres of Dhaka city, the FE correspondents found that some people were running from one polling booth to another to cast their votes.
Rubina Khan with having ID card No. 2692619479603 could not cast her vote at the city's Gulshan Model School voting centre as her name was missing from the photographed voters' list.
"The same problem has happened to my husband Iftekhar Ali Khan," Rubina said, adding that fortunately, her daughter was able to cast vote.
Like the Khans, Ms. Asma Afrin, Mrs. Farida and Mr. Jahangir tried in vain to cast their respective votes at Mirpur Bangla School centre in Dhaka as their names were found missing from the voters' roll.
Admitting the problems, the Presiding Officer at the Mirpur Bangla School, Nurul Islam, said four numbers - from 702 to 705 - were missing in the relevant voters' list.
Another voter told the FE that he was facing immense difficulties in casting his vote at the Shahid Babul Academy under Dhaka-10 constituency as nobody could exactly tell him where to cast the vote.
"The concerned polling officer sent me back to first floor of the Academy when I reached a polling booth of the fourth flour with a my voter slip and photo ID card," he said.
He went on: "After facing the similar problem, I am still running from one place to another for casting my vote."
Acknowledging such problems, one of the Presiding Officers of four polling centres under the Shahid Babul Academy, Iftekharul Islam, said he had noticed 15 to 20 cases regarding the missing of voters' names until 12:30 pm in his respective centre.
"It is a technical problem … we have nothing to do in this respect," he said.
Dr. Md. Altaf Hossain, Presiding Officer of Faizur Rahman Ideal Institute voting centres under the same constituency, also told the FE correspondent that he took more than 40 such cases to notice until 12:15 pm on the election day.
"We are trying our level best to help the voters identify their respective centres so that they are able to cast their votes accordingly.