Delay in vote counting: What Jucsu election commission says

Highlights:

• Manual counting replaced OMR, slowing tallying significantly
• Some halls faced delayed starts and even suspensions
• Large turnout surge late afternoon caused backlog
• Counting began late lastnight after box arrivals
• Absence of several polling agents further prolonged counting process

Over 20 hours after polling ended in the Jahangirnagar University Central Students' Union (Jucsu) and hall union elections, vote counting is still underway today (12 September).

University Proctor and Election Commission Member Secretary AKM Rashidul Alam initially told reporters that the results might be ready by this afternoon. Later, he revised the timeline, saying the process could stretch into tonight.

Explaining the delays to The Business Standard, Rashidul Alam cited several reasons.

Firstly, preparations had been made to use OMR machines for counting, but following requests from several candidates, the commission decided to proceed with manual counting.

"Naturally, manual counting takes more time," he said.

Secondly, voting at some halls began late, and in a few cases was temporarily suspended. In two of the largest halls with more than a thousand voters each, turnout remained low until the late afternoon, when large numbers of students suddenly queued up between 4:30pm and 5pm.

As per the rules, all those who were in line had to be allowed to vote, which delayed the delivery of ballot boxes to the counting centre until around 9:30pm, he said.

"Since counting could not start until all ballot boxes had arrived, this pushed the process back to 10pm."

Thirdly, officials were initially unprepared for manual counting, leading to a slow start, according to him. The pace of counting improved later.

Fourthly, vote counting began at the Senate Building with only five tables under CCTV monitoring. This morning, the number of tables was increased to 10, with cameras installed at each station for transparency.

Additional factors also contributed to the delay, Rashidul Alam noted.

He said, "While many polling officers were present last night, several polling agents were absent. Ballot boxes should be opened and counted in their presence, alongside the respective returning officers. Their absence slowed down the process."

He added that most of the initial hurdles had been overcome and the commission expected smoother progress as counting continued.

Jucsu Election Commission Member Lutful Elahi said that the vote counting process was further delayed by several unforeseen factors, including the sudden death of their colleague.

Additionally, counting was suspended between 12:30pm and 2:30pm to allow for the Friday's Jumah prayer break.

According to him, some halls had two separate ballot boxes, which required additional time to identify and separate ballots for the central and hall union elections.

Elahi further noted that a shortage of office equipment, space constraints in the building, and limited manpower and tables slowed down the early stages of counting.

However, he said additional tables and staff were later arranged to expedite the process.