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.
Returning Officer and Jhenaidah Deputy Commissioner Abdullah Al Masud said around 10:30pm that Kaliganj Shaheed Noor Ali College senior lecturer Shamsuzzaman Khan has been appointed as the new presiding officer.
He said such irresponsible activities would not be tolerated in the interest of ensuring a free and fair election.
According to officials, 23 result sheets signed by agents of the ‘sheaf of paddy’ and ‘scale’ symbols were recovered from the centre around 8pm.
After receiving the information, 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 said the signed result sheets were seized and torn up, adding that the incident would not affect the election process.
He also said fresh result sheets have been ordered to be prepared.
Jasmine Ara said she had signed the result sheets without realising it was a mistake and later tore them up after understanding the error.