After the voting in the 10th parliamentary elections in 147 constituencies that saw widespread violence and low voter turnout, the counting of votes is now underway.
The counting began shortly after the voting came to a close at 4pm.
The voting that opened at 8am saw low turnout of voters and clashes between law enforcers and anti-election activists that left at least 19 people dead in different districts.
The deaths were reported from Rangpur, Dinajpur, Feni, Nilphamari, Laxmipur, Munshiganj, Chittagong, Gaibandha, Thakurgaon, Naogaon and Jessore.
Among the deceased, four were killed in Dinajpur, three in Thakurgaon, two each in Rangpur, Nilphamari and Feni, and one each in Laxmipur, Munshiganj, Chittagong, Gaibandha, Naogaon and Jessore districts.
Meanwhile, polling at 144 centres in 14 districts was postponed due to destruction of those in arson attacks by anti-election activists, sources at the Election Commission Secretariat said.
Several candidates, including rebel contestant of Awami League in Sirajganj-5, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) candidate in Lalmonirhat-1, independent runner in Jamalpur-1 and Jatiya Party (Monju) candidate in Jamalpur-5, rejected the polls on charges of vote rigging.
Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad at a press briefing at the Election Commission (EC) at 2pm also apparently acknowledged the low turnout of voters in the 10th national election.
Claiming that people across the country rejected outright the controversial 10th general election, opposition BNP on Sunday said the defeat of the government has been ensured through the rejection.
A total of 43,938,938 voters out of the country’s 91,965,977 were supposed to exercise their franchises to choose the representatives in the 147 constituencies from 380 candidates.
Out of 40 registered political parties, only12 parties are contesting the election as the 18-party alliance and other political parties boycotted the election with demands that the election be held under a non-party administration.
UNB correspondents visiting different polling centres in the capital saw a very low presence of voters till midday.
Presiding officers at different polling stations, including Senpur Model High School and College, Senpur Primary School and Haji Shariatullah Adarsha High School in Dhaka-4, Dania Government Primary School and Kazlarpar High School in Dhaka-5, told UNB that the 5-10 percent votes were cast in their respective centres till 2pm.
Poor voter turnout was also reported from different districts, including Chapainwabganj, Jamalpur, Feni, Laxmipur and Sylhet districts.
The opposition alliance boycotted the election as its demand for a non-partisan interim government to oversee the election has gone unheeded.
In its last-ditch efforts to stop the election, the BNP-led 18-party alliance enforced non-stop blockade and 48-hour hartal programmes across the country.
Over 130 people have been killed across the country in election-related violence across the country since the Election Commission announced the election schedule on November 25.
All the efforts by the international community and the civil society members to convince the government to hold an inclusive election has gone in vain as the current regime and the Election Commission were insisting that the election has to be held by January 24 for maintaining the constitutional process.
Source: UNBConnect
