Golam Mohammad Quader has published a time-based analysis of the voting process in the Rangpur-3 constituency during the 13th National Parliamentary Election. In the analysis, he argues that the voter turnout announced by the Election Commission is inconsistent with the available voting time, the number of polling booths, and the overall voting process, and therefore the declared result cannot reasonably be considered credible.

Voting Statistics

According to the analysis, Rangpur-3 had a total of 502,992 registered voters. The Election Commission announced that 320,479 votes were cast, representing a turnout of 63.714 percent. The constituency had 169 polling stations with a total of 973 voting booths.

Based on a nine-hour voting period—from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., or 540 minutes—the analysis calculates that each voting booth would have processed an average of 329.372 voters. Since each voter received two ballots—one for the parliamentary candidate and one for the referendum—this would leave an average of only 1.64 minutes, or 98.4 seconds, per voter.

How Long Does Voting Take?

The analysis outlines the steps involved in casting a vote: verifying the voter’s identity, applying indelible ink, receiving two ballots, entering the secret voting booth, marking both ballots, folding them, and placing them into the designated ballot boxes.

It claims that completing this process requires at least three to four minutes per voter. On that basis, the analysis argues that it is unrealistic for a voter to complete both ballots in an average of just 1.64 minutes.

Questions About Voter Queues

The analysis further argues that if it were actually possible for each voter to complete the process in 1.64 minutes, then every voting booth should have had continuous long queues throughout the day. Even with interruptions for prayers, lunch, or other reasons, voters would still have been waiting after the scheduled closing time.

However, citing various sources, the analysis claims that in reality many polling stations remained largely empty for extended periods and that no such continuous queues were observed during the day.

Estimated Voting Capacity

The analysis also estimates the maximum number of votes that could realistically have been cast.

If each voter required three minutes, then each voting booth could process a maximum of 180 voters during the 540-minute voting period. Across all 973 booths, this would amount to 175,140 votes, equal to 34.819 percent of the total electorate.

If each voter required four minutes, each booth could process 135 voters, resulting in a total of 131,355 votes, or 26.114 percent of registered voters.

The analysis further claims that, according to various sources, most polling stations remained without voters for more than half of the voting period. Under that assumption, the maximum possible vote count would fall to approximately 87,570 votes using the three-minute estimate, or 65,678 votes using the four-minute estimate.

Conclusion

Golam Mohammad Quader’s analysis claims that there are significant inconsistencies between the officially declared vote count and the reported conditions at polling stations. According to his calculations, if the three-minute estimate is used, up to 72.675 percent of the declared votes may have been artificially added through electoral manipulation. Using the four-minute estimate, that figure rises to 79.506 percent.

Based on these arguments, he concludes that the officially declared election result for the Rangpur-3 constituency is unacceptable.

The information, statistics, and claims presented in this report are based on the published analysis by Golam Mohammad Quader.