Dhaka, Feb 12 (.) The much-anticipated voting in Bangladesh’s 13th national parliamentary elections and July Charter referendum has commenced, with a reported nearly 40 per cent voter turnout across all the 42,651 polling centres nationwide by noon, according to the Chief Election Commissioner.
Sharing updates with reporters in Dhaka at the EC headquarters, the EC announced that turnout figures would be shared every two hours after voting began.
Stating that data collection directly from presiding officers was causing difficulties, an official said “They are the ones managing the flow of voters, so we faced problems. That’s why we made a procedural change. Now we are collecting information from assistant returning officers,” adding that another update would be provided later.
The Election Commissioner said that “Some isolated incidents have occurred, mostly outside polling centres related to law and order” adding that polls are going on as planned, due to their immediate interception, noting that the “local administration has taken prompt measures.”
Regarding the reports of multiple incidents of violence and unrest amid the polls, he called the incidents “sporadic” and “isolated”, and confirmed that voting at Mymensingh-1 was not disrupted despite the death of an assistant presiding officer early this morning.
“A replacement was provided, so polling continued smoothly,” he said.
He clarified that the turnout figure includes both election and referendum votes.
On election-day violence, he said, “There has been no fatal incident. In Meherpur, a clash broke out after voting, leaving two people injured. They received first aid and returned home. There are no reports of casualties.”
Asked whether the commission is satisfied with the voter turnout, the EC replied, “That is for you (the media) to judge. Of course, we want higher turnout. You can decide whether we should be satisfied or not.”
. . JRC