Mock voting held at Dhaka school to assess election readiness
Voting is taking place in four booths of the Sher e Bangla Nagar Girls High School centre. In the first hour, 23, 37, 27 and 21 voters cast their ballots in the four booths, respectively, according to the assistant presiding officer.
The Election Commission (EC) today (29 November) organised a mock voting exercise in Dhaka ahead of the upcoming national election and the referendum.
The mock voting began at around 8am at Sher e Bangla Nagar Government High School and will continue until noon. A total of 510 male and female voters are taking part.
EC Secretary Akhtar Ahmed visited the centre at 8am. He said that since the election and the referendum will be held on the same day, the commission wants to gain practical experience to complete the entire process more efficiently.
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Election Commissioner Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah arrived one hour after voting started. He expressed anger over the situation inside the centre and began monitoring how long it took each voter to cast a vote.
He selected 20 male and 20 female voters for fresh mock voting. He said the timings would help decide whether the number of polling rooms, secret rooms, and centres needed to be increased. He stressed that the exercise was important and said confusion and disorder would bring no benefit.
Inside the centre, voters were seen standing in queues. There are separate rooms for male and female voters.
Voting is taking place in four booths of the Sher e Bangla Nagar Girls High School centre. In the first hour, 23, 37, 27 and 21 voters cast their ballots in the four booths, respectively, according to the assistant presiding officer.
Several voters said they were able to vote in just one minute because they already knew the process.
The presiding officer said voters were assisted from knowing their serial number to reaching the polling booth. Verifying the voter list providing the ballot paper and stamping together took about one minute for each voter.
A voter named Moushumi Tania said she cast both the referendum and election votes, adding that more publicity is needed for the referendum.
Wakaruzzaman, a university student, told The Business Standard that he found the process very easy.
He said he had already learned many things from the internet, so he did not face any difficulty in casting the referendum vote.
A voter named Shahidul Alam said he easily voted for the party symbol in the parliamentary election ballot. For the referendum, he tried to understand whether he was voting yes or no.
He added that the pink ballot paper had small writing and he could not properly notice it. He stamped on one of the tick or cross options without fully understanding. He again stressed the need for more publicity.
EC Sanaullah also requested that only voters remain inside and that others step aside to help continue the mock voting.
He then restarted the exercise with mock journalists, mock observers, and polling officials.
Chief Election Commissioner arrived at the centre at 10.15am to observe the mock voting.
