Inside toilet goes voting

The toilet of a school is being used as a polling booth in Kuliarchar upazila of Kishoreganj yesterday. The presiding officer says they had to set up the booth at such an awkward place due to room constraints. Locals don't buy it and needless to say, they cast ballots at the so-called booth with utter distaste. Photo: Star

A long queue before a toilet obviously means the people waiting there are pretty helpless and very eager to respond to nature's call. But things can be otherwise, and most peculiar.
Yesterday, women lined up before a lavatory to cast their votes in the upazila parishad polls at No. 8 Agarpur Govt Primary School of Ramdi Union in Kuliarchar of Kishoreganj.
Inside the toilet sat Assistant Presiding Officer Luthfa Begum, not on a chair but on a commode. Her two assistants found a little space at the narrow entrance. The ballot box too had been kept on the commode of a nearby toilet. Agents of the candidates were in the school field.
The polling centre at the primary school has 3,252 voters and that was why 10 polling booths had been set up there in five rooms, including the one in the toilet. As many as 276 voters were to cast votes in the toilet booth.
During a visit to the spot around 10:30am, this correspondent found female voters going to cast their votes in the lavatory one by one and coming out disgusted.
None of them could make anything positive out of this tasteless arrangement.
"We heard voting is like a festival. Who knows what kind of festivity I have celebrated by casting my vote inside a toilet," said one Jumela Akhter.
Another voter Asma Begum said, "Couldn't they manage anything better? That was sickening."
The assistant presiding officer and the polling agents also felt disgusted discharging their duties in a toilet.
"It's a shame, but there is nothing to do. If you ask me about my feelings, I will have to say it feels good," said Lutfa Begum.
Rahmat Ali, agent of chairman aspirant Nurul Millat, said he had never thought of becoming an agent at a centre set up in the toilet.
Asked why a lavatory was used as a polling booth, Presiding Officer Md Shahnewaz said they had to because of a shortage of rooms. The toilet was new and had not been used before, he added.