A number of voters complained of not being able to vote as the fingerprint scanners failed to identify them at 18 polling centres in Lalmonirhat municipality election today.
The voters, mostly elderly and people involved in manual labour, expressed their dissatisfaction after failing to cast their votes due to fingerprint mismatch even though they brought their NID cards with them, reports our Lalmonirhat correspondent.
Abul Kashem, a voter at the Shaheed Shahjahan Colony Government Primary School polling centre, said that he could not vote as his fingerprint did not match with the database while using electronic voting machine (EVM) despite several attempts.
Like Kashem, many voters, mostly elderly people, day labourers and rickshaw-pullers, shared similar experience and frustration after failing to cast their votes.
Abu Sadeq Mohammad Junnu, presiding officer at Shahjahan Colony Government Primary School centre, told The Daily Star that about 150 voters complained to him that their fingerprints did not match.
Mahbubul Islam, presiding officer of Nesaria Madrasa polling centre, said fingerprints of voters — mostly elderly and day labourers — did not match.
About 200 out of 2,925 voters in his polling centre complained to him of not being able to vote due to the reason, Mahbubul said.
