150,000 ballots scrapped: Massive invalidation hits Gazipur seats

Nearly 150,000 ballots across Gazipur’s five constituencies have been declared invalid.

These include both parliamentary and referendum ballots, though the cancellation rate for the referendum has been significantly higher.

Official records show that the highest number of referendum ballots cancelled in a single seat was approximately 31,500.

These cancellations have raised eyebrows among local political observers.

Election results published early Friday showed that BNP candidates won four of the five Gazipur seats, while the other was taken by a Jamaat-e-Islami candidate.

Election officials stated that ballots that were not marked or signed were declared invalid.

According to the declared results, a total of 140,838 votes have been declared invalid across Gazipur district, on the outskirts of Dhaka. Of these, 24,963 were parliamentary ballots, while the number of invalid referendum ballots stands at 115,875.

In the 238 polling centres of Gazipur-1, a total of 382,244 votes were cast, including 7,750 ballots that were cancelled.

The same seat had 31,586 referendum ballots cancelled out of the total 382,157 votes cast for the referendum.

Across 273 centres in the Gazipur-2 constituency, the total number of votes cast was 359,464, including 8,481 votes cast for electing representatives cancelled.

Of the 360,303 referendum ballots cast in the seat, 19,660 were invalidated.

In the Gazipur-3 parliamentary seat, the total number of votes cast was 303,972, with 8,280 ballots cancelled.

The number of votes declared invalid in the referendum was 28,441. The total number of valid referendum votes was 275,621.

The total number of valid parliamentary votes in the Gazipur-4 seat stood at 199,689, while 4355 votes were cancelled. In the constituency, 17,909 referendum ballots were cancelled.

The total number of valid referendum votes was 185,841.

In the Gazipur-5 seat, the total number of votes cast was 229,929.

The number of valid votes was 225,552. In the referendum, 18,279 ballots were cancelled.

The total number of referendum ballots stood at 211,719.

Gazipur District Election Officer and Assistant Returning Officer Md Mizanur Rahman said parliamentary ballots are typically declared invalid for reasons such as failing to stamp the candidate’s designated symbol correctly or dropping the ballot into the box without a stamp.

In the case of referendum ballots, he said, votes are ruled invalid due to the absence of the required declaration form, improper stamping, or the lack of necessary signatures and verification.