diff --git a/docs/changes/newsfragments/322.bugfix b/docs/changes/newsfragments/322.bugfix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..462166332
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/changes/newsfragments/322.bugfix
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Force ``str`` dtype when parsing elements from file by `Synchon Mandal`_
diff --git a/junifer/api/cli.py b/junifer/api/cli.py
index e6a10a2c5..9c0364215 100644
--- a/junifer/api/cli.py
+++ b/junifer/api/cli.py
@@ -114,14 +114,13 @@ def _parse_elements_file(filepath: Path) -> List[Tuple[str, ...]]:
         filepath,
         header=None,  # no header  # type: ignore
         index_col=False,  # no index column
+        dtype=str,
         skipinitialspace=True,  # no leading space after delimiter
     )
     # Remove trailing whitespace in cell entries
-    csv_df_trimmed = csv_df.apply(
-        lambda x: x.str.strip() if x.dtype == "object" else x
-    )
+    csv_df_trimmed = csv_df.apply(lambda x: x.str.strip())
     # Convert to list of tuple of str
-    return list(map(tuple, csv_df_trimmed.to_numpy().astype(str)))
+    return list(map(tuple, csv_df_trimmed.to_numpy()))
 
 
 def _validate_verbose(
diff --git a/junifer/api/tests/test_cli.py b/junifer/api/tests/test_cli.py
index 4efd8c912..5ad159b71 100644
--- a/junifer/api/tests/test_cli.py
+++ b/junifer/api/tests/test_cli.py
@@ -156,6 +156,21 @@ def test_run_using_element_file(tmp_path: Path, elements: str) -> None:
             " sub-01 , ses-01 \n sub-02, ses-01 ",
             [("sub-01", "ses-01"), ("sub-02", "ses-01")],
         ),
+        ("001,01", [("001", "01")]),
+        (
+            "001,01\n002,02",
+            [("001", "01"), ("002", "02")],
+        ),
+        ("001, 01", [("001", "01")]),
+        (
+            "001, 01\n002, 02",
+            [("001", "01"), ("002", "02")],
+        ),
+        (" 001 , 01 ", [("001", "01")]),
+        (
+            " 001 , 01 \n 002, 02 ",
+            [("001", "01"), ("002", "02")],
+        ),
     ],
 )
 def test_multi_element_access(