Teacher involved in counting demands use of OMR machine
JU Correspondent
Professor Sultana Akter, returning officer of Nawab Faizunnesa Hall and a teacher of the History Department at Jahangirnagar University, demanded that votes should be counted using the OMR machine and not by hand.
Speaking at the vote counting room on Friday at 4pm, she said, “I don’t want to count votes over my colleague’s dead body.”
Prof Akter demanded that the vote counting should have stopped following the death of her colleague, Associate Professor Shamim Reza, during the counting process.
She also said that many polling officials were absent due to illness.
“I called one polling officer. He was sick and could not come. Without him, we cannot start counting votes at the hall,” she added.
She claimed that the traditional method could take at least three days.
“If you were going to use the traditional method, why didn’t you tell us earlier? Using OMR machines is the only proper way now,” she said.
Additionally, Prof Akter blamed the university’s mismanagement for her colleague’s death and demanded justice.
“We had to count the hall council votes from just one ballot paper, and it caused such a terrible situation. Now, if 8,000 votes are cast for central positions, we will have to count 24,000 votes. It will take three days. That is why we want to change the method. We are teachers. We have families and relatives. We cannot work under so much mental stress,” she said.
