Ballot stuffing in at least 30 centres began soon after the polls opened in the morning and continued till voting ended in the afternoon in yesterday’s municipal polls.
In some centres, votes were cast even before the polling booths were officially opened at 8:00am. Leaders and activists of the Awami League and supporters of the ruling party’s candidates captured some polling centres and drove out voters and agents of rival candidates to stuff ballots in favour of their candidates.
They had free entrance and movement inside the voting centres and in some cases controlled the voting.
In several places, election officials and law enforcers were seen helping the AL men rig the vote.
To cover up all these irregularities, polls officials, cops and members of other law enforcement agencies restricted the access of the media to the polling stations in many municipalities. In some centres, ballot stuffing by law enforcers took place in presence of the media.
In many centres, voters were given ballot papers for councilors only while ruling party men themselves cast votes for their mayoral candidates.
At Kabirpur Govt Primary School in Jhenaidah, for example, polling agents of boat symbol were seen stuffing ballots in front of police personnel around 11:00am.
Police first intercepted The Daily Star correspondent when he was entering the centre. Later, cops took away the ballot papers and asked the boat symbol agents to return to their seats.
Some women voters returned home without voting as they were not given the ballot papers.
In fact, vote rigging took place in all the five polling booths of the centre. A constable was heard asking women to vote for boat.
AL men and supporters of the party’s mayor candidate Shahiduzzaman Selim captured two centers — Dudshar and Sugarcane — Kotchandpur municipality and started voting for boat symbol around 8:40am.
Following complaints of BNP supported mayoral candidate, presiding officers of the centres looked into the allegations and found those true. Later, 300 ballots of Dudshar centre and 50 votes of Sugarcane centre were cancelled.
Sheikh Sazzad Hossain, presiding officer of Dudshar center, said some outsiders entered the center forcibly and cast votes for boat.
In Shailakupa municipality, Rajib Hasan, son of AL nominated mayor candidate Kazi Ashraful Azam and his men stormed the City College Center to stuff ballots. Proof of it was later found when presiding officer informed that 900 votes, out of 1,500 votes, were cast by 10:00am.
Hasan and many BCL and Jubo League men were freely moving inside the centre while BNP mayor candidate Khalilur Rahman was not allowed to enter.
A group of journalists went to PTI New Admin and Academic Building centre in Munsiganj around 3:25pm and found a man stashing ballot papers inside a ballot box at a polling booth on the first floor. He fled when journalists came.
Some women alleged they were waiting in line for long but were not allowed inside the booth for voting.
In Bhola, presiding officer Nazrul Alam was seen giving ballot papers to AL men for stuffing at Abdul Jabbar College centre. He fled sensing the presence of newsmen.
AL-backed councillor candidate and his supporters also stuffed ballots on the first floor of Charnoabad Govt Primary School centre.
Supporters of ruling party mayor candidate Bipul Hawlader stuffed ballot at two Mozahar Uddin Biswas Degree College and Fazil Madrasa centres in Kalapara municipality.
Voting began smoothly at Biswas Degree College centre, but a group led by former BCL general secretary of Putuakhali district Shahanur Rahman Sujon stuffed ballots for Bipul for about one hour from 9:45am.
Split in groups, they entered all the six booths of the centre, snatched ballot papers, put seals on boat symbol and put them in ballot boxes as the on-duty police members looked on. A number of journalists were present at the time, but nobody cared.
Earlier, one of them went to the room of the presiding office and snatched all the ballot papers.
The story of Fazil Madrasa centre was, however, different. Journalists, including the Patuakhali correspondent of The Daily Star, found a ballot book where supporters of AL-backed councillor candidate Mahbub Alam and put seals on his symbol, ‘panjabi’.
Assistant Presiding Officer GM Nazrul Islam expressed his helplessness to The Daily Star, saying that some cadres threatened him with dire consequences if he did not hand the ballot books over to them.
The Daily Star correspondent witnessed casting of fake votes and ballot stuffing at two polling centers at Sonargoan municipality in Narayanganj.
Around 3:30pm, when fresh vote casting started after a suspension for more than one-and-a-half hours for irregularities, AL candidate’s agents were seen stuffing ballot boxes with the help of assistant presiding officer at booth-4 of Sahapur Talimul Quran Madrasa center.
An agent of AL mayor candidate Fazle Rabbi asked this correspondent to go out of the booth. The agent then put seals on several ballots for party candidate and stuffed them in a ballot box openly.
Similar irregularities and stuffing took place in over two dozen polling centres that The Daily Star correspondents covered.
