Extreme high, extreme low

The Gazipur City Corporation election saw an unusual voters' turnout rate -- extremely high in some centres while extremely low in some others -- raising serious questions.

For example, in Holyson Kindergarten and High School centre in Gazipur sadar,only 14.14 percent people voted.In contrast, the BasuraMaktob Madrassa centre saw the highest 94 percent turnout, according to the returning officer (RO).

Results prepared by the RO's office show at least 40 polling centres had voters' turnout between 14 and 41 percent. On the other hand, 61 centres recorded 73 to 94 percent turnout.

The overall turnout stands at 57.02 percent in Tuesday's election, marked by incidents of irregularities, ballot stuffing and heavy showdown of ruling party men in and around polling stations.

The Awami League mayor candidate defeated his BNP rivalby around 2,00,000 votes.

“The turnout is abnormal. It shows clear manipulation in the voting process,” local government expert Tofail Ahmedtold The Daily Star yesterday.

Former election commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain said, “Gazipur city is a not a remote area so that the turnout will be very high in some places and very low in some other areas. There are many ways to rig an election.”

But Election Commission Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed insists there is nothing abnormal about the turnout.“Geographical location and human settlements are two issues that determine voters' turnout.”

The Khulna city polls in May also saw some unusual turnout. In that polls, some centres saw turnout as low as 38 percent while some othersas high as 90 percent.

“Later, we found that there was a jute mill near one polling centre and the mill was closed. So the turnout was low there. And the turnout was high in densely populated area,” said the Commission secretary.

In the May 15 KCC election, one of the 286 centres stood out. The Nayabati Haji ShariatullahBidyapithcentre in ward10 saw an astonishing turnout of 99.94 percent. Only one of the 1,818 voters did not vote in that centre, according to the results prepared by the returning officer.

In Gazipur, AL candidate Jahangir Alam bagged 4,00,010 votes and his BNP counterpart Hasan Uddin Sarker 1,97,611 votes, said Returning Officer Raquib Uddin Mondal.

This is according to the tally from 416 out of the 425 centres. Voting in nine centres was suspended following allegation of irregularities and vote rigging.

Out of 416 polling centres where votes were counted, BNP's Hasan took lead in 38 centres while Jahangir claimed the rest. Most of the centres Hasan won are in Tongi, his hometown.

The ruling party men also won most of the ward councillor posts -- 37. BNP candidates got 12, Jatiya Party men two while one went to an independent candidate.

Tuesday's polls did not see any major incident of violence, but it lacked any sort of festivity because of an atmosphere of intimidation created by the AL men.

To cover the election, The Daily Star assigned nine correspondents and three photographers. They visited 72 polling centres and witnessed how AL activists and supporters influenced voting in many of the centres.

During their visits, The Daily Star journalists did not find BNP candidates' polling agents at 42 centres.

Many AL men also took position inside polling booths and wandered from one booth to another at will.

At 13 centres, they were seen snatching ballots from voters and then putting seal on them.

Law enforcers were present in large numbers, but they were mostly silent observers, as AL men broke election rules.

In the Holyson Kindergarten and High School centre, where turnout was just 14 percent, Jahangir Alam got 462 votes and Hasan Uddin Sarker 258 votes out of the 6,046 votes in the centre.Thirteen votes were cancelled.

In the ward 27, the turnout was 40.40 percent.

Locals said such a low turnout was quite abnormal as there was no violence in the centre.

Interestingly, Afia Pre-Cadet Academy and High School, located in the same ward and adjacent to the Holyson polling centre, had a 70 percent turnout.

“The pattern is abnormal. There may be two reasons for poor turnout -- either voters were barred from coming to the centres or voters had no interest to vote.”

Sakhawat said 94 percent turnout is also abnormal. “The Commission should look into the abnormal pattern of voting.”

Local government expert Tofail Ahmed said the ruling party handled the election process “very nicely”. There was no apparent violence, but they had their job done “quite successfully”.

“After the Khulna and Gazipur elections, we see a new trend emerge in local body polls,” he said.

Explaining the new trend, he said a sense of intimidation was created ahead of and during the polls to discourage voters to come out and vote.