Sack of Ballots: They were all marked for BCL panel

The sack of ballots allegedly found in Bangladesh-Kuwait Maitree Hall were all marked in favour of Bangladesh Chhatra League panel.

Students of the women's dorm found the sack around 7:50am inside the reading room next to the auditorium.

Voters were supposed to put an X mark next to their chosen candidate on the ballot paper.

The BCL-backed candidates in the Kuwait Maitree Hall were Razia Sultana Katha for vice-president, Shaolin Jahan Sejuti for general secretary, Jannatul Haowa Ankhi for assistant general secretary, Sabikunnahar Moon for literary secretary, Kobita Ray for cultural secretary, Tamanna Tasnim Toma for reading room secretary, Meher Afroz Suravi for indoor games secretary,

Jannatul Ferdous for external sports secretary, Kohinoor Khatun for social work secretary.

For hall union member hopefuls backed by the BCL, ballots were marked for Kumkum Rahmin, Puja Das, Mitali Malo and Sanjida Islam Sraboni.

Several students of the hall said despite repeated requests the hall provost did not open and show the empty ballot boxes before the polling started.

Around 7:00am, voters queued up to cast their vote. After a while, several candidates of different panels demanded that the ballot boxes be opened in front of them. Around 7:50am, the provost and proctor took the ballot boxes into the reading room where the sack was found.

Grieving students in front of the hall showed the ballot papers to reporters and said they thought the marking took place the night before the election.

Nurunnahar Poly, an independent for vice president of Bangladesh-Kuwait Maitree Hall, said, “We told the provost madam around 7:30am that we want to see the empty ballot boxes for ourselves. But she did not let us. She said the proctor would show the boxes once he arrived.

“The proctor came and said there will be a fair election and that the ballot boxes would be shown. He went inside [the reading room] and locked the door from inside. We knocked several times but they refused to open it. After a while they opened the door. Then we found the sack of ballot papers [inside the room].”

Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof Muhammad Samad announced suspension of voting at the hall soon afterwards. The voting started again three hours later and continued until 5:10pm.

Hall Provost Shabnam Jahan was relieved of her duties after the incident. She was replaced by Prof Mahbuba Nasrin. A  four-member probe body headed by Prof Muhammad Samad was formed to investigate the incident.