Jhenaidah: The presiding officer of Salimunnesa Girls’ School polling centre under Jhenaidah-4 constituency was removed from election duty on Wednesday night following the seizure of 23 signed result sheets. The removed officer, Jasmine Ara, was serving as presiding officer at Centre No. 5 of Kaliganj Municipality. She is also an assistant engineer of the Department of Public Health Engineering.
According to United News of Bangladesh, Returning Officer and Jhenaidah Deputy Commissioner Abdullah Al Masud announced around 10:30pm that Kaliganj Shaheed Noor Ali College senior lecturer Shamsuzzaman Khan has been appointed as the new presiding officer. He stated that such irresponsible activities would not be tolerated in the interest of ensuring a free and fair election.
Officials reported that 23 result sheets signed by agents of the ‘sheaf of paddy’ and ‘scale’ symbols were recovered from the centre around 8pm. Following the discovery, Executive Magistrate and Chief Executive Officer of Jhenaidah District Council Selim Reza and Assistant Returning Officer and Kaliganj UNO Rizwana Nahid visited the centre.
Selim Reza confirmed that the signed result sheets were seized and torn up, ensuring that the incident would not affect the election process. He further mentioned that fresh result sheets have been ordered to be prepared. Jasmine Ara admitted to signing the result sheets without realizing it was a mistake and subsequently tore them up after understanding the error.