Personal data belonging to 14,000 journalists who applied for credentials to cover Bangladesh’s national election was leaked from the Election Commission’s website after a contentious shift to mandatory online registration.

The leaked material became publicly accessible on the commission’s dedicated website on Saturday afternoon and included applicants’ names, national identity numbers and mobile phone numbers. The breach came days after the commission scrapped the online system following protests by media groups.

Election Commission officials confirmed the leak. Ruhul Amin Mollik, director of the commission’s public relations department, said the online system had been shut down on Friday. “We are looking into how it was opened today [Saturday] and will be able to say after an investigation,” he said. He later said an administrator had opened the site on Saturday afternoon and that it had since been closed.

The commission had initially required all journalists and observers to apply online for cards and vehicle passes to cover the February 12 general election and referendum. On Thursday, however, after a meeting between journalists and Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin, the commission reversed course and agreed to return to its previous manual system for issuing passes.

The personal details of the 14,000 journalists who applied through the website were exposed when the site’s homepage displayed the full list of applications shortly after 4 pm on Saturday.