Voters were enthusiastic about the use of electronic voting machines but a good number of elderly and uneducated people faced difficulties to cast their vote with the device in the Narayanganj City Corporation polls held on Sunday.
Voters after casting their vote with EVMs expressed a mixed reaction to the introduction of the device.
Voters who faced difficulties in casting their vote said that they had not been educated about the device before its introduction.
Many of them said that they were happy about the new device while most of them doubted whether they had voted for the candidate of their choice.
A voter, at the Adamjinagar School polling station, cast two votes, said one of the polling agents there.
Voters, especially the elderly, blamed the EVM for its ‘complications’ in casting the vote.
The Dhanakundu Popular High School centre presiding officer Mazharul Islam admitted that voters had faced difficulties in casting their vote. He said that the voters should have been educated about the use of electronic voting machines.
Voters said that it had taken more time for them to cast their vote with the device and many of them were sceptical whether they could have voted the people of their choice with the machine.
The EVM did not have the symbols clear and it created complications in voting, they added.
One EVM used in the Haji Sirajuddin Memorial centre in Ward 23 malfunctioned three times. The presiding officer Mozammel Haque said that one of the machines had gone out of order but it was not a major incident.
Rina, at the Srama Kalyan Kendra polling centre, sought help of election officials, saying that she did not know how to use the machine.
Rabiul Hasan at the same centre told New Age, ‘It took more than a minute and a half for me to cast my vote. The symbols were not also clear.’ At least six voters at the centre made similar complaints.
Shamsul Haque, another voter in Ward 18, who cast his vote at the Sitalakhya Primary School centre, said that he was sceptical about his vote’s fate. ‘I have doubts whether my vote would be counted.’
Asia Begum at the Kumudini Welfare Trust of Bengal centre in Ward 18, said that she had try three time to cast his vote.
In all the cases, the election officials showed the people how to cast vote using the machine.
Twenty-six-year-old Rajiv Das, who works with a private organisation, at the Sitalakhya Government Primary School centre, said that he was happy that he could cast his vote with the electronic voting machine taking a very short time. He took a break from work to cast his vote.
The Srama Kalyan Kendra polling centre presiding officer Mehedi Hasan said that elderly people had faced some problems in casting their vote
Elderly women said that they lacked training in the matter. The Haji Sirajuddin Memorial polling centre presiding officer Mozammel Haque and the Kumudini Welfare Trust of Bengal centre presiding officer Monir Hossain also echoed the elderly women.
All the three presiding officers, however, brushed aside the allegations of election symbols not being clear in the electronic ballot paper. They said that the system was transparent and it took less time to case vote with the machines.
A total of 34 votes cast with EVMs at the Nabiganj Girls’ High School centre at Bandar were not counted as those were cast in demo mode of the machine ‘by mistake.’
Assistant presiding officer of a polling booth in the centre began polling in the demo mode and when reporters found that the votes were being cast in demo mode, the officer hurried stopped polling.
The officer later resumed polling with the EVMs after erasing the votes that had already been cast and the votes were not added to the total count.
The assistant presiding officer, Shanaj Aktar, said that it had happened ‘by mistake’ as the technology was new to them.
Polling, meanwhile, remained stopped for an hour as the EVM went out of order in another polling station at Bandar.
About 1,48,000 voters of nine out of the 27 wards were scheduled to cast their vote with EVMs in 450 booths of 58 centres. A total of 1,400 election officials were trained in EVM use.
The commission earlier failed to pull voters of the Narayanganj City Corporation to its orientation programme to educate them on EVM use as the commission had trained voters for days.
In June, EVMs were used in 79 booths of 14 centres in one ward in the Chittagong City Corporation polls. A total of 25,230 people voted there.
Source: newagebd.com/newspaper1
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