CCTV surveillance has EC suspend questionable Gaibandha by-polls

Elections were going on in Gaibandha. The authorities of the Election Commission were observing the polls live, staying at the EC headquarters in Dhaka – over 250 kilometres away from the election centres.

The use of modern technology-based CCTV cameras made it possible and helped the new Election Commission look for evidence of irregularities on its own.

Wednesday's dramatic by-election for the Gaibandha-5 constituency, which saw vote-rigging, eviction of opposition polling agents from centres and other anomalies from the very beginning, finally ended up being suspended.

"We have been observing the overall elections [in Gaibandha] from our control panel [in Dhaka].  We found that the voting was not being carried out in an orderly fashion and there were irregularities from the very beginning," Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal told reporters after suspending the by-polls.   

"Helping or forcing voters to cast their votes through illegal entry was happening, which is beyond the rules. At many centres, even the CCTV cameras we had installed were disconnected."

"We could all see that the situation had spun way out of control. You [the journalists] could see for yourself that there were people coming in and out of the polling booths," he added.

The CEC said through the live observation of the voting, he suspended polls in 43 centres before 12:30pm, and many others later in several phases.

"We then continued to discuss and analyse the matter with all the members of the commission and realised that closing the polls at certain centres was not going to give a fruitful outcome."

"At one stage, under Section 91 of The Representation of the People Order, 1972, we finally terminated the voting completely," he added.

Although the Habibul Awal-led commission used CCTV cameras, along with electronic voting machines or EVMs in a few local government elections earlier, the use of the technology in the Gaibandha-5 by-polls was the first in a parliamentary election.

A total of 1,242 CCTV cameras were installed at the 145 polling centres  – 88 at Saghata upazila and 57 in Fulchhari upazila.

The constituency, which fell vacant following the death of deputy speaker Fazle Rabbi Miah, has some 339,434 voters from 17 unions.

Meanwhile, all four opposition candidates – HM Golam Shaheed Ranju from Jatiya Party, Jahangir Alam from Bikalpa Dhara, independent candidates Nahiduzzaman Nishad and Mahbubur Rahman – boycotted the by-polls alleging vote rigging and voters being thrown out of the centres, reports our local correspondent.

They announced their withdrawal from the election at a joint press conference around 11am, where they said the followers of Awami League-nominated candidate Mahmud Hasan Ripon were indulging in vote-rigging.

Officials at the Returning Officer's office and local people said this polling was normal until 9am. But after 10 O'clock in the morning, Awami League activists began to occupy different polling centres. They also forced opposition polling agents out of the centres.

"I participated in the election with the apple symbol. Even I could not cast my vote. When I went to vote at the Dahikaran Government Primary School centre my followers were beaten by AL activists. Moreover, they are now planning to sue my men on false allegations," Nahiduzzaman Nishad said while withdrawing his candidacy.

For his part, the Jatiya Party's HM Golam Shaheed Ranju said, "It is actually a farce in the name of election."
Independent candidate Jahangir Alam said, "There is no fair voting in this constituency. Voting cannot be done like this. Each centre is occupied by people of the boat symbol. Our supporters cannot vote. We are under attack."

Our Gaibandha correspondent Khorshed Alam contributed to this report.