"We've passed, we've passed surely," said a self-satisfied Faruk, a butcher and resident of Shahjahanpur, at the Dhaka-10 by-polls centre at around 1:30pm.

"I gave 50 votes myself" he said adding, "plenty others came to vote like me."

Similarly, a man claiming to be Syed Khalid Haider of 20, New Eskaton, was allowed to vote at the centre without any verification and the polling officer even allowed him to go without marking his finger with indelible ink.

"They did not put ink-mark on my finger," said the young man, who later admitted to be Shafiq from Mirpur, as he followed a large number of men with Falu's election badge pinned on their chest and arms.

Like many others he also cast his vote openly. Some alleged they were being spied on if they were casting their votes in favour of the alliance nominee.

Asked on the allegation, Presiding Officer Rezaul Karim said he was sorry for the 'mistakes'.

At least 10 voters told this correspondent within a span of 20 minutes that the others had already cast their votes before they could reach the polling booth. However, polling officers kept mum on the issue.