Bangladesh
EC Recounting of EVM results: EC did not locate three audit cards
Own Correspondent, Dhaka, Nov 7: The Election Commission (EC) has not received the whereabouts of three audit cards ordered to recount the results of the general councilor post of a ward of Dhaka North City Corporation. As a result, the EC recalculated the results given by the presiding officer after the voting at that time. It was not possible to match the correct result of the vote with the result of the presiding officer as the audit card was not available. This is the first EC vote count ordered by the court.
EC officials said the results of the entire center are stored in the audit card. So the poison of audit card disappearance can be deliberate. Again the presiding officer may be mistaken. But the question remains in calculating the result without the audit card. The audit card contains the total result of the center, while the polling card contains the result of each booth.
EVM voting was held in Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) on February 1, 2020. When a case was filed in the Election Tribunal regarding the election for the post of General Ward Councilor No. 6 of DNCC, the court ordered a recount of the results. Following the court's order, a five-member result recount committee of the Election Commission conducted a recount of the results on November 5.
Head of the committee and Director General of Election Training Institute (ETI) Md. Abdul Baten said, "The sealed bag will contain the audit card plus the presiding officer's result sheet, print copy of the result from the EVM, this is the rule. As per the order of the court we opened the sealed bags in front of the presiding officer and the candidates. Three or four audit cards are missing. But there was the result sheet of the presiding officer and the printed copy of the result from the EVM, which was put in the bag on the polling day. I counted it in front of everyone."
He said, "In the order given by our commission, the court, our job is to submit the findings we have received. We will submit to the commission and the court exactly what we have received or what we have not received. The court will give the final decision."
