In the one and a half hours since voting started at the Jatrabari Ideal School and College centre in the capital city, only 25 persons cast their votes. There are 3,237 voters in this centre. The rate of votes being cast is 0.77 per cent.
Voting in the by-elections to the Dhaka-5 seat began at 9:00am Saturday in 187 centres. Contesting for this seat are Salahuddin Ahmed with the sheaf of paddy symbol and Kazi Monirul Islam with the boat.
There is another polling centre for men on the first floor of the same building. A total of 1,998 voters are registered there. When asked how many votes had been cast over the one and a half hours since the morning, presiding officer Hamidul Islam said that he hadn’t calculated it as yet.
The BNP candidate Salahuddin Ahmed had come to the centre at 9:50am.
At 9:30am, the Awami League candidate Kazi Monirul Islam turned up.
However, the ‘sheaf of paddy’ candidate Salahuddin Ahmed said that his polling agents were being sent out of the centre. Speaking to newsmen, he said that Awami League activists had created a threatening environment so that voters did not turn up at the centre. He also said that the executive magistrates were doing nothing.
He went on to say that the government and the election commission could do nothing without resorting to rigging. He warned that if there were discrepancies in the voting, a movement to topple the government would start from there.
From the morning, over a hundred persons with the boat symbol badges around their necks had taken position in front of the centre. No one in support of the sheaf of paddy candidate was visible there. There were members of the police in the rooms of the presiding offers, while BGB and RAB personnel were occasionally on patrol.
There are a total of 471,129 voters in the Dhaka-5 constituency. Of them, 241,464 are male and 229,465 are female.