Due to technical faults in the OMR machinesVote counting suspended at Jagannath University

Jagannath University authorities have suspended vote counting for the student union elections due to technical faults in the OMR machines.

Election officials started vote counting around 6pm on Tuesday, three hours after the voting closed for the Jagannath University Central Students’ Union (JnUCSU) elections.

However, technical faults became evident shortly afterwards, the Election Commission said. Two OMR machines showed different count, prompting the Commission to halt the process, said Election Commissioner Prof Dr Anisur Rahman.

The machines were tested for the past three days, but never showed such anomalies, he noted.

Around 9:30pm, the Commission was set to convene a meeting with all the candidates for the vice president and general secretary posts, Prof Dr Anisur Rahman added.

In the meeting, the officials will decide whether the counting would resume with the OMR machine or manually, officials said.

Earlier, around 9am, the first ever JnUCSU elections opened. Voting continued in a largely peaceful atmosphere until 3pm.

Around 16,500 students cast their votes at 178 booths across 39 polling centres. Four panels are contesting for key posts. The panels are led by Chhatra Dal, Chhatra Shibir, Chhatra Shakti and a leftist alliance.

As many as 158 candidates vied for 21 posts at Jagannath University Central Students’ Union (JnUCSU). Thirty-three other women candidates are contesting to grab 13 posts at the Nawab Faizunnesa Chowdhury Hall.