Police yesterday detained a local Awami League leader in Chattogram’s Boalkhali upazila over taking the ballot unit of an Electronic Voting Machine out of a polling centre during the by-polls to the upazila chairman post.
The detainee, Ratan Chowdhury, is the president of Jayshtapura union AL, said police.
According to sources, Ratan took the ballot unit out of the polling centre at Jayshtapura Ramani Mohan High School during polling around noon.
He took the machine to an electoral camp of the AL’s chairman candidate.
As the information spread, Ratan was going to return the machine. But law enforcers detained him on the way to the polling centre and took him to Boalkhali Police Station.
Jahangir Hossain, Chattogram district election officer and also the returning officer of the by-polls, said they issued a show-cause notice to the presiding officer of the polling centre asking him to explain the matter.
“We have also instructed the police to take action in this regard. The presiding officer primarily informed us that the ballot unit was a spare one and it was not being used for taking votes.”
Jahangir, however, said no election material can be taken out of a polling centre as per electoral rules. As the AL leader violated the rules, the EC would take action against him, he added.
Boalkhali Police Station OC Abdur Razzak said Ratan was detained for quizzing. He declined to make any further comments.
Expressing resentment about the issue and the overall atmosphere of the by-polls, independent chairman candidate Kazi Ayesha Farzana said, “The Election Commission and the local administration had assured us of fair by-polls, but we have seen today [yesterday] that all polling centres have been captured by ruling party men.
“My polling agents have been driven out of most of the voting centres. Even an Awami League leader dared to snatch an EVM from a polling centre which is unprecedented,” she added.
