Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin on Thursday dismissed allegations of manipulation over voter turnout percentages released during the balloting process, saying such variations are natural as results from thousands of polling centres arrive at different times.
"There were debates over the voter turnout percentage in the past (elections) as well. Please don’t question it now,” he said at a post-election briefing at 10pm on Thursday night.
The CEC, however, didn’t release the overall voter turnout percentage at the briefing.
Addressing concerns raised over changes in reported vote percentages, he said questions often emerge immediately after results start coming in, with some people pointing out that the turnout or counting percentage stood at 8 percent at one point and rose to 20 percent a few hours later.
Explaining the procedure, the CEC said results from more than 42,000 polling centres are received gradually and added cumulatively as they arrive at the Election Commission.
“When results come from such a large number of centres at different times, there will naturally be variations in the overall percentage,” he said, adding that this does not indicate any irregularity.
The CEC categorically denied any manipulation or hidden motive behind the changing figures.
“There is no game of manipulation here and no other intention,” he said. “We are simply doing addition and calculation and announcing the cumulative results accordingly.”
He also clarified that the Election Commission itself is not issuing any independent or unilateral results.
“We do not want to give any ‘official’ result of our own,” the CEC said. According to him, the only results considered in the counting process are those sent directly from the field by the returning officers, duly signed and authenticated by them.
“The results that the returning officers send from the field with their signatures are the ones we include in our calculation,” he said, stressing that the process is entirely transparent and based on official documentation from the grassroots level.
The clarification comes amid ongoing public discussion and scrutiny over the pace and pattern of result updates as vote counting continues across the country.
Earlier in the afternoon, EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said some 47.91 percent of registered voters had cast their ballots by 2pm at 36,031 out of 42,651 polling centres across the country.
He said the commission has yet to receive turnout data from 6,620 centres, he told reporters at the EC secretariat in the afternoon.
The referendum and the 13th parliamentary election were held simultaneously from 7:30am to 4:30pm on Thursday in a festive and peaceful atmosphere in 299 out of 300 constituencies across the country.