Due to these, enumeration in many places went on at a relatively slow pace yesterday, report our correspondents from different districts.

In the constituency of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) MA Aziz in Barisal, names of many would-be voters regarded as supporters of the main opposition Awami League (AL) were reportedly excluded from the list.

In Chittagong, uncalled-for voluntary service of the ruling party activists hampered the information collection and the voter listing process. In the name of volunteering, they in fact tried to manoeuvre the enumeration process so that only the individuals with ruling alliance allegiance are enlisted as voters, alleged many intending voters in the port city.

The CEC and officials at the Election Commission (EC) secretariat yesterday remained tight-lipped as usual about the ongoing weeklong process of collecting information on the voters, which began on January 1.

In the last two days, enumerators enlisted about 40 percent of the prospective voters against the plan for completing at least 50 percent of the task on the first day, officials at the EC secretariat claimed.

Our correspondent from Barisal reports: Enumerators reportedly did not consider the names of the opposition supporters to be on the list in Gouranadi, the upazila adjacent to the CEC's village home in Barisal.

Locals caught a BNP activist Kawsar Hossain in the act of collecting information about the prospective voters at Lakheraj Kosba in Gouranadi. But Kawsar denied the allegation and said he came to the area to assist his sister recruited as an enumerator for this area.

Barisal unit of AL yesterday formed a vigilance committee in the city corporation area to monitor the preparation of the voter roll.

Our Chittagong Correspondent adds: Uninvited voluntary service of the ruling party activists disrupted the information collection in many places of the port city.

Activists of ruling BNP and its student wing kept circling around the field-level information collectors during the last two days of enumeration.

Visits to some of the areas revealed that persons loyal to the ruling party lawmakers from Chittagong 8 and 9 constituencies were working as the supervisors of the enumeration staff while the ones appointed by the EC appointed kept aloof.

In Dampara Bagmanirium area [city corporation ward No 15], Ranjana Sen, headmistress of a local primary school, was seen collecting information at around 1:00pm while local JCD President Rezaul Karim Manik and some others were supervising the process.

When asked, Manik said he was supervising the task on the instructions of a local lawmaker of the ruling alliance. Some JCD activists loyal to a former state minister were also present there.

At Enayet Bazar at around 11:30am, JCD activist Nezam Uddin was seen dictating to schoolteacher Nepali Das how to go about her job as an EC-appointed enumerator. "I am only helping her do the job properly," he told The Daily Star.

Information collection in Agrabad Pathantuli area is reportedly going on under supervision of local ward BNP Vice-President Abdul Motaleb and his son Didarul Alam.

While visiting the area at around 2:30pm yesterday, no enumerator was found to be in the field.

Abdul Motaleb said the commission's staff would come at 3:00pm as from that time onwards he and his men would be able to accompany them.

"We are overseeing the listing job to make sure none of our men is left out of the list," he told The Daily Star. "We have already prepared a list of voters in the locality on our own and submitted it to Khosru Bhai [local MP]", he added.

However, things seemed different in neighbouring Daiyapara area where Ketan Saha, a schoolteacher, was carrying out without any interference the task he was assigned by the EC.

Despite repeated attempts, the persons appointed by the EC to supervise the task in these areas with the above alleged anomalies could not be available for comment.

Meanwhile, some heads of the schools engaged in the enlisting process said collecting information alongside taking care of their schools have become very difficult for them.

Headmistress Ranjana Sen of Bagmaniram School said, "We are usually busy at the beginning of the academic year and now with the enumeration assignment on I can hardly make time for my school."