Like Sekandar, thousands of prospective voters who live mostly in slums of Kamrangirchar were not registered as voters yet on the ninth day of stipulated 11-day schedule for correcting the much controversial voter list already updated once.

About 10 thousand prospective voters of the ward now feel that they have little hope of seeing their names on the voter list as the field level officials left their houses without registering them as voters.

Many residents of the area, who are eligible to be voters, alleged that the field level EC officials did not visit their houses. They alleged that the officials only visited the houses of either BNP or Jaamat leaders or of their relatives and supporters.

While this correspondent visited ward no 5 and 4 of the city in Kamrangirchar yesterday, many residents alleged that the visiting EC officials were usually guided and instructed by local people identified as leaders of BNP or its front organisations, and stayed away from the houses or slums occupied by Awami League supporters.

Achia, wife of the owner of a small road side café at Boro Gram under ward no 5, claimed that many people including her and her husband were not registered as voters because the enumerators had not visited their slum although they went to the adjacent slum.

With a sardonic smile Achia said, "Don't you know why they did not register us as voters?"

A rather large number of local residents besieged this correspondent and urged him to register their names as voters, since they mistook him for an enumerator from the EC.

After finding out his real identity some of the residents started pouring out allegations against the EC enumerators and the local BNP and Jamaat leaders and activists.

They said field level EC officials visited their slums and houses accompanied by local leaders of BNP and its front organisations.

Leaders of the local units of BNP and its youth front Jubo Dal took the EC officials to their supporters' houses and slums only, alleged the aggrieved residents.

"We saw some of the field level officials writing 'A' on their papers next to the names of known Awami League supporters and activists", alleged a local resident while many around him were also echoing him.

Mostafa, a local Awami League activist was beaten by BNP activists as he protested against the alleged irregularities, said some eyewitnesses.

A former Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal activist of ward no 5 said the allegation is true, requesting anonymity.

"We supervised and helped the field level EC officials in their work," said Golam Rasul Shamim, son of Rafiqul Islam, the general secretary of the thana unit of BNP.

"We could not register the names of many prospective voters of this area as they might move out to other places in the city before the polling day," said Shamim.

Rafiqul Islam also admitted that BNP and its front organisation leaders and activists 'helped' the EC officials in their work.

When confronted with the allegation that Awami League supporters and activists were being left out of the voter list, he however showed utter astonishment and termed the allegation as a 'baseless rumour'.

"They (field level officials) did not include us as voters," said Nurjahan, a resident of ward no 5, adding, "They rather told us to contact the thana election office."

"The field level officials left our slum without registering us as voters," claimed Sekandar (65) and Masuda Khatun.

"We were not registered as voters even at the time of the earlier updating of the list," Sekandar alleged.

Meanwhile, our Comilla correspondent reported that EC enumerators dropped the names of some seven thousand voters from the list in Sadar South upazila there.

The much talked about correction of the voter list in eleven days began on December 8 across the country amid lack of proper guidelines, preparation, and enthusiasm among the field level staff for the job.

Constant allegations of some major irregularities in correcting the updated voter list have been being reported both in the capital and elsewhere in the country since the process began.