Shujan demands Supreme Judicial Council probe 100pc voting

Dhaka, July 09 – Terming the 100 percent vote cast in 213 centres in the 11th parliamentary polls as ‘illogical and unusual’, Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan) Tuesday demanded the Judicial Supreme Council (JSC) to investigate the irregularities and to bring the responsible person to justice.
The cast of 100 percent votes in any centre is not logical and not at all acceptable because it is very natural that during election some of the listed voters might die, might stay outside the country, might stay out of constituency for emergency work or might be ill, or etc, it said.
They said there is no report in the 100-year history of elections that saw 100 per cent turn up. The casting of 100 per cent votes in 213 centres in 103 constituencies is not at all believable, Dilip Kumar Sarker, central coordinator of Shujan said after presenting the statistics on the 11th parliamentary elections at the Dhaka Reporters Unity in the capital.
Shujan president and former caretaker government adviser M Hafizuddin Kha chaired the programme.
After analysing the results of the general election, Shujan found that a single electoral symbol has bagged 100 per cent votes in 587 centres in 75 constituencies and the difference of votes between the grand alliance and Oikyafront is abnormal.
Only a single candidate has bagged all valid votes of 587 centres of 75 constituencies but no other candidates obtained a single vote, the report said. The candidates of ‘boat’ symbol have bagged all votes in 586 centres out of 587 while candidates of ‘paddy sheaf’ have bagged all votes in one centre, it said.
Out of the 75 constituencies, Awami League secured 74 seats and Workers Party candidate secured one seat.
Under the Magura-2 constituency, the candidate of ‘paddy sheaf’ bagged all votes in a polling centre but Awami League candidate has shown winner in the same centre.
Such tendencies have been found in all seats of Gopalganj and Madaripur including Sirajganj-3, Faridpur-1, Narail-2, Brahmanbaria-6 and Barishal-1.
The candidates of boat symbol have bagged all votes of 239 centres out of 387 in three constituencies of Gopalganj district. The candidate of boat symbol in Gopalganj-3 has bagged all votes of 77 centres out of 107.
The candidates of boat symbol have obtained all votes in 68 out of 376 centres in three constituencies of Madaripur district, the data said. So the voter turn up of 100 per cent in 213 centres is not natural under any logic, Shujan said.
Quoting Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda who also said the turn up of 100 votes is not a normal event and Election Commission (EC) has nothing to do, Shujan said EC is a constitutional body and as the chief of the body, CEC cannot say it because several verdicts of the apex court relate ‘It is the function of the EC to probe whether the election has been fair, justly and honestly. If EC is satisfied that election was not fair, it can cancel the poll and hold a fresh poll.’
The results also counted the lowest votes. 11 centres of five constituencies have witnessed less than five percent turn up while 20 centres of 10 constituencies have witnessed six to 19 percent votes.
The lowest votes 1.33 percent were counted at Jessore Cantonment Board lower secondary school under Jessore-3 constituency. The total votes of the cenre were 2186 but only 29 votes were cast, the report said.
There is a huge difference of votes between the grand alliance and Oikyajote. The candidates of paddy sheaf did not get a single vote in 1285 centres while such matter took place in two centres – Hatpara Fajil Madrasa centre in Thakurgaon-3 and Thoipara govt primary school centres in Magura-2 – for boat symbol.
Even the candidates of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) who are getting higher votes in the constituencies for the last four general elections have seen reduction of votes tremendously.
Out of the total 300 seats, there were no candidates of paddy sheaf in 18 seats and at the same time 163 candidates including heavyweights candidates with paddy sheaf symbol lost their election deposits.
About the cancellation of votes, Shujan found abnormality of excessive cancellation of votes. The average cancellation of votes was 1.06 per cent in 300 constituencies. From 11 to 61 per cent votes were canceled in 342 centres.
In addition, no vote was cancelled in 4795 centres and 61 per cent votes were cancelled in Noagaon Govt Primary School centre under Brahmanbaria-2.
Shujan has also found huge differences of vote cast between ballot papers and electronic voting machines (EVM). Comparing the votes cast, it was seen that 80.80 per cent votes were cast in ballot papers in 294 seats while the vote cast in remaining six seats was 51.42 per cent.
Shujan asked question why the vote cast under EVM is lower compared to the paper ballots. – Staff Reporter