Voter turnout 30pc: CEC
Staff Reporter :
The voter turnout in the second phase of upazila elections on Tuesday was estimated to be above 30 percent, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal announced.
Speaking to reporters at Nirbachan Bhaban in the capital’s Agargaon in the afternoon, he emphasized that the elections were conducted in a fair and peaceful manner.
The CEC highlighted that immediate actions were taken against attempts to rig the vote, resulting in the arrest of 25 individuals, 10 of whom were sentenced on the spot. The precise voter turnout figure will be confirmed on Wednesday, he added.
Despite a few isolated incidents where some individuals were injured, the election day was largely devoid of major violence. Addressing questions about the low voter turnout, Kazi Habibul Awal attributed it to the boycott by the country’s main opposition political party, which had also distributed leaflets urging people to abstain from voting. “In a democratic political system, such scenarios are possible.
The main issue lies not in our voting system but in our politics. If our political landscape stabilizes, voter turnout will improve,” he asserted.
Voting commenced at 8:00 am and continued uninterrupted until 4:00 pm, spanning 156 upazilas across the country.
However, polling stations experienced low voter turnout, with some reports of minor violence. EC Secretary Md Jahangir Alam reported that voter turnout was approximately 17 percent within the first four hours.
The Election Commission’s factsheet, released on Sunday, indicated that over 3.52 crore voters were registered across 13,016 polling stations in the 156 upazilas. This includes 1,79,05,464 males, 1,72,99,047 females, and 237 transgender persons.
A total of 1,824 candidates, including 603 chairman contenders, vied for 468 posts—comprising chairman, vice chairman, and women vice chairman positions—in each upazila. Electronic voting machines (EVMs) were deployed in 24 upazilas across nine districts, with traditional ballot papers used in the remaining upazilas.
