Confusion, symbol mistakes cost huge number of votes

About 4 lakh ballots rejected in Pabna, Sylhet

24 January 2009, 18:00 PM

Star National Desk

The recently concluded upazila elections has seen cancellation of a large number of ballots in different areas of the country. At least 1.85 lakh ballot papers were rejected in nine upazilas under Pabna district in Thursday's upazila election, reports our Pabna correspondent. The invalid votes for the posts of upazila chairman, vice chairman and female vice chairman in nine upazilas in the district stood at 38507, 81277 and 65,017 respectively, official sources said. The invalid votes for the three posts constitute 6.20 percent of the total 10 lakh 2 thousand and 435 cast votes in the district. Mistake for the symbols in the ballot papers was the main cause of this large number of invalid votes, said officials and experts. Voters were confused about the symbols as the election symbols were set in two columns in the ballot papers and there were more symbols than the number of candidates, they said. Similarity in symbols also confused the voters. 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. “The symbols in the ballot papers were not clear. Some symbols were similar. Also the names of the candidates were absent in the ballots. The new rule was not so clear to the mass voters in the district that lead to the cancellation of a large number of ballots,” Md Abdul Motin Khan, president of Pabna district chapter of SUJON (Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik), told this correspondent yesterday. Our staff correspondent adds from Sylhet: As many as 1,78,885 ballot papers were declared invalid in the elections for 12 upazila parishads in Sylhet district. The number of cancelled ballot papers for the posts of chairman, vice chairman and female vice chairman are 38622, 61435 and 78882 respectively, sources said. The highest 23,125 votes were cancelled in Sylhet Sadar upazila while Kanaighat was following with 20,050 votes. The cancelled votes had played role for determining the polls results, an official said. As for example, the winner in Golapganj upazila defeated his nearest rival by 3048 votes whereas 3566 votes were cancelled there.