A polling officer checking a voter’s identity, who went to cast her vote in the fourth phase of Upazila Parishad polls on Wednesday. The picture was taken from Humayun Kabir Bidya Niketan in Brahmanbaria — Focus Bangla Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal has expressed his satisfaction over the polling in the fourth phase of the Upazila Parishad elections, reports bdnews24.com.
"We are very happy that the election was peaceful. There was no violence, no major incident. That's satisfying in a way," he told reporters at his office in the city's Agargaon on Wednesday after the voting ended .
Initially, Awal reported a voter turnout of 34 per cent in the fourth phase.
It was 36 per cent in the first phase, 38 per cent in the second phase, and 36 per cent in the third phase. This marks the lowest voter turnout in the upazila polls in the last 15 years.
When asked about the low voter turnout, Awal said, "We cannot analyse this political judgment now. Others [election experts] will analyse the turnout."
Voting opened at 7,500 polling centres in 60 upazilas at 8:00 am on Wednesday and continued until 4:00 pm without a break.
Six upazilas voted through EVMs in this phase, while the rest used traditional paper ballots.
Of the 495 upazilas in the country, 450 are going to the polls in the Sixth Upazila Parishad Election. The remaining upazilas will hold elections once the terms of their upazila councils end.
The CEC received voting information from 2,089 out of over 5,000 centres in the fourth phase by 5:00 pm.
The average voter turnout in these centres was 34.33 percent, he said.
Wednesday's vote was peaceful with no violence, but there were minor incidents such as chases. In Kishoreganj's Bhairab upazila, voting at a centre was halted.
During the fourth phase, 28 people were detained for rule violations and disrupting order, while nine received sentences for various crimes, and 21 were fined, said the CEC.
"In Bhairab upazila, miscreants snatched and opened a ballot box, resulting in the suspension of voting at that centre."
The CEC said, "There were very minor incidents of violence. Eleven people were injured in minor chases, and in Barishal, there was a scuffle with five injuries. It wasn't too serious, but more than minor."
He said a presiding officer was caught stamping ballot papers himself at a centre in Netrokona and has been detained.
"There were five incidents of fake votes in total. No issues were reported with the EVMs during voting."
During the four-phase election, voting in 20 upazilas was postponed due to Cyclone Remal and will now take place on Jun 9.
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