Desk Report,
‘It’s a misunderstanding, an information gap’: Returning officer on Chhatra Dal candidate Abid’s entry into polling station
Returning officer Kazi Mostaq Ghausul Haque, who is in charge of the polling station set up at the university’s Physical Education Center for the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) elections, told Prothom Alo this evening, “Our protocol was fixed in the morning that candidates will not be able to enter. I just did that as a voter in the center, I said…in fact, to be very frank, I went to hear about it, I went and I did not find him (Abidul Islam Khan).”
‘It’s a misunderstanding, an information gap’: Returning officer on Chhatra Dal candidate Abid’s entry into polling station
On Tuesday morning, Abidul Islam Khan, the vice-president (VP) candidate of the Chhatra Dal panel, entered this polling station. Returning officer Kazi Mostaq Ghausul Haque told Prothom Alo on his mobile phone this morning, “There is no opportunity for candidates to enter the polling station.” He said that he was at Zahurul Haque’s center. He does not know about the matter, he is looking into it.
It is worth noting that the code of conduct of DUCSU and the Hall of Parliament does not prohibit candidates from entering the center. This creates a kind of misunderstanding.
Section 12 (b) of the electoral code of conduct states that no one other than election officials, employees, candidates, polling agents, and persons authorized by the returning officer will be allowed to enter the polling center. This means that candidates can enter the polling center.
For this, Prothom Alo once again spoke to the returning officer in charge of the polling center set up at the Physical Education Center, Kazi Mostaq Ghausul Haque. He said that DUCSU candidates will be able to enter the center of the hall to which they are connected. Apart from this, candidates will not be able to go to any other hall. Such an instruction was given to them. Kazi Mostaq Ghausul Haque said, “The protocol was fixed on us that candidates will not be able to go to other centers, meaning except their own polling center. It was corrected in the afternoon and said that now new candidates can go. Then we let the candidates go. As a result, you can call it a misunderstanding, you can call it an information gap, this is what happened from our side. Nothing more. Since the corrected information was sent to us, you will let it in. Then we did it, we did it everywhere.’
This official also said, ‘We call it our own communication gap or information gap, for which we made corrections whenever we came to know about it.’
Meanwhile, when criticism started about entering the polling station, Abidul Islam Khan told reporters this morning that he entered the polling station with the permission of the returning officer. However, in the afternoon, Kazi Mostaq Ghausul Haque told Prothom Alo that Abidul Islam Khan entered the polling station without any communication with him.
