UNB, Dhaka: The capture of polling stations, large-scale rigging and intimidation allegedly by ruling party men marked the elections to Dhaka south, Dhaka north and Chittagong corporations on Tuesday with boycott by pro-BNP candidates halfway through. The voting that started at 8am simultaneously in the three cities following a three-week high-decibel campaign by candidates ended at 4:00pm. Shortly after the voting came to an end, election officials started vote counting while results from various centres are being reported during filing of the report around 9pm. A very low turnout was reported from the three cities though there was no immediate official figure from the Election Commission. However, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad claimed that the elections in three city corporations were held peacefully except some stray incidents, and urged all the candidates to accept the election results and take forward the country’s democratic values. Rakibuddin also claimed that the voter turnout in the polling centers was huge as there was no major disturbing incident during the election. BNP boycotted the elections to all the three city corporations bringing the allegations of massive vote rigging by pro-Awami League men with the help of law enforcers and polling officials. BNP standing Committee member Barrister Moudud Ahmed announced the decision at a press briefing at BNP central office at Nayapaltan in the city at noon. Later in the afternoon, citizen’s platform Agamir Dhaka north’s mayoral candidate Zonayed Saki also rejected the polls. “We’ve decided to reject the polls after we observed a number of incidents of vote manipulation and irregularities,” he said terming the election unfair. A total of 1188 mayoral and councillor candidates vied for 182 posts in the elections to the three city corporations, where some 60 lakh people were expected to exercise the franchise in 2,701 polling stations. Of them, 48 candidates contested polls for three mayoral posts, while 249 for 45 reserved seats and 891 for 134 general councillor posts in the cities. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina cast her vote at Dhaka City College polling centre under Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) around 8 am. Awami League-blessed mayoral candidate of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Annisul Huq cast his vote at Banani Bidyaniketon School and College around 8:30 am while BNP-backed mayoral candidate of DNCC Tabith Awal cast his vote along with his family members at Gulshan’s Manarat International School in the morning. BNP alleged that ruling party men with the help of law-enforcers drove out the polling agents of their party-backed candidates from all the polling stations of Dhaka north and Dhaka south city corporation polls by noon.
