For the first time the Dhaka City Corporation elections were held entirely with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
Although chances of votes being rejected in case of EVMs are less than in case of traditional ballot papers, during the Feb 1 polls over 1,500 votes were rejected each in Dhaka North and South.
Generally there are multiple reasons why votes are rejected in traditional ballot papers which include, unclear seal on the polls symbol, seal on more than one symbol, seal between two symbols, torn ballot paper or no seal at all.
According to Election Commission employees, the white button on the machine is for selecting the symbol and the green button for confirming it and the red button for scrapping it in case of mistake.
The Commission’s System Analyst Farzana Akhter said that if the voter wants to change the symbol, they have to press the red button twice.
However, they can on only do this twice, as during the third attempt the vote is automatically confirmed.
Citing the city polls as an example, Farzana said that unless a voter selects symbols for all three candidates (mayor, councillor, reserved seat for women councillor), their vote will not be accepted.
She said that if all three symbols are not selected their vote won’t be complete and will be rejected.