Vote counting in 12 upazilas continues

The counting of votes in 12 upazila parishads across eight districts continues as the polling closed at 4pm Monday.
The voting in the upazilas was held amid stray incidents from 8:00am to 4:00pm without any break, according to a news agency.
Meanwhile, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad claimed that the election was largely fair as per the overall situation.
The voting in only three polling stations out of 741 was postponed due to violence and stuffing, he told a press briefing at the EC media centre in the afternoon.
In Comilla, voting in two polling stations — Chhayabithi Government Primary School and Afzal Khan Technical College — in sadar upazila was postponed following ballot paper snatching and bomb explosions.
In a separate incident, a group of miscreants snatched 600 ballot papers from Subarnapur Government Primary School polling station in the same upazila around 10:00am and beat up its presiding officer with sticks as he resisted them from looting the ballots.
In Rangpur, police arrested a BNP-backed chairman candidate, Masud Rana, in Rangpur Sadar upazila for violating polls codes.
The 12 upazilas are Kaunia, Gangachhara, Sadar and Pirgachha of Rangpur, Kamarkhand of Sirajganj, Taltali of Barguna, Basail of Tangail, Gazipur Sadar, Kalukhali of Rajbari, Bijoynagar of Brahmanbaria and Adarsha Sadar and Sadar Dakkhin of Comilla.