The counting of votes in the JUCSU and hall union elections is still underway, 20 hours after polling ended. The total number of registered voters was 11,743, with a turnout of around 67 to 68 per cent.
Polling ended at 5:00 pm yesterday, Thursday. However, those who were still in line were allowed to cast their votes. The counting began around 10:15 pm, reports Prothom Alo.
University proctor and member secretary of the Election Commission, AKM Rashidul Alam, told Prothom Alo last night that counting might be completed by Friday afternoon. Later today, he suggested that it could be finished by tonight.
When asked why the counting of votes and the announcement of results were being delayed so much, Rashidul Alam mentioned several reasons:
First, preparations had been made to use OMR machines for the counting. But following requests from several candidates, it was decided to carry out the count manually. Rashidul Alam said it was only natural that a manual count would take more time.
Second, although polling was scheduled to begin at 9:00 am, it was delayed in two halls. In a few halls, the process was briefly suspended midway. In particular, voting progressed very slowly until midday in two large halls with more than a thousand voters each. Later, a large number of students queued up between 4:30 pm and 5:00 pm.
According to rules, all of them had to be allowed to cast their votes. As a result, the ballot boxes from those centres did not arrive until about 9:30 pm. Counting could not start until all ballot boxes arrived, which pushed the beginning of the count to around 10:00 pm, he added.
Third, since everyone had not been fully prepared or did not have full knowledge about the manual counting system in advance, the process moved slowly at first. However the pace improved later.
Fourth, counting began in the Senate building on five tables (one table for one hall), each monitored by CCTV. Later, the number of tables was increased to 10 this morning, with additional cameras installed so that the process could be observed by all and be recorded.
Fifth, Rashidul Alam mentioned a few other issues. He said, “Although many polling officers from the halls were present last night, polling agents were absent in several cases. Ballot boxes should ideally be opened and counted in front of polling agents.”
“Plus, the presence of the respective returning officer is mandatory. We also tried to ensure that. But because the poling agents from some halls were not present, the vote counting process was delayed,” he added.
Rashidul Alam clarified that the initial reasons for the delays have now been largely overcome.
