Dhaka, Feb. 12 -- Many voters said they stamped 'Yes' or 'No' on the referendum ballot "within a second" without reading the questions printed on it.

Asked how long it took to cast their referendum vote and whether they had done so knowingly and reading it, Shova Siddiqui, a voter from Shahjahanpur in Dhaka, said: "It took one second to vote in the referendum. Why read so much? I voted where my mother told me to."

The 22-year-old student cast her vote at the Mirza Abbas Mohila College centre.

Another university student, Happy Akter, who voted at the same centre, said: "I voted in the referendum, that's it. It did not even take a second. Why would I need to read it? I voted with full understanding."

Sixty-year-old Samsul Alam cast his ...