Six Dhaka seats among 10 lowest turnout records

• Dhaka-15 polled only 13.04% of the total votes in the constituency, the lowest across the country. 
• Dhaka-17 experienced the second-lowest turnout at 16.66%.
• Chattogram-11 polled 18.60%, Dhaka-8 had 18.70%, and Sylhet-1 came fifth with 19.30%.
• Dhaka-16 is in the sixth position in terms of the lowest voter turnout, with 19.88% of votes cast, followed by Dhaka-14 with 20.82%.
• Voter turnout stood at 21% in Bogura-6, 21.59% in Dhaka-11, and 21.64% in Chattogram-10.

Six of the ten constituencies with the lowest voter turnout in the 12th national elections held on Sunday were in Dhaka city, and three of the five with the lowest were also Dhaka seats.

Analysing results published by the Election Commission, it has been found that Dhaka-15 polled only 13.04% of the total votes in the constituency, the lowest across the country. Dhaka-17 experienced the second-lowest turnout at 16.66%.

Among the other constituencies with the lowest voter turnout, Chattogram-11 polled 18.60%, Dhaka-8 had 18.70%, and Sylhet-1 came fifth with 19.30%.

Dhaka-16 is in the sixth position in terms of the lowest voter turnout, with 19.88% of votes cast, followed by Dhaka-14 with 20.82%. Voter turnout stood at 21% in Bogura-6, 21.59% in Dhaka-11, and 21.64% in Chattogram-10.

Out of 21,75,076 voters, 4,05,834 votes were cast in the Dhaka six seats. This constitutes 18.66% of the total voters. In these seats, the winners received 3,37,397 votes, which is 83.14% of the total turnout.

The six second-placed candidates together polled 31,279 votes, which is 7.71% of the total casting votes. Apart from the winner and nearest rival, each of the other 41 candidates got an average of 715 votes. These 41 candidates received a total of 29,328 votes, which is 7.23% of the total casting votes.

There was no independent candidate in Dhaka-15, which had the lowest voter turnout in the country. Awami League nominee Kamal Ahmed Majumder was elected with 39,632 votes, which is 88.20% of the total voter turnout. His closest rival, Jatiya Party's Samsul Haque, got 2044 votes. Six other candidates from this seat polled a total of 2,498 votes.

Awami League candidate AHM Bahauddin Nasim alone got 92.16% of the votes cast in Dhaka-8, while Jatiyo Party candidate came in second by securing only 880 votes. Candidates from nine other parties in this seat had votes ranging from 69 to 697.

Dhaka's 20 constituencies polled an average of 25.93%, with the winning candidates securing more than 74% of the total votes cast.

A deserted look of the polling centre at Mirpur Bangla School and College was captured two hours into the voting process. Photo: Md Jahidul Islam.

Among them, the voter turnout showed competition between the winners and their nearest rivals in three seats. 

In the rest of the seats, the aggregate of votes received by the other candidates together was less than one-tenth of the votes garnered by the winner.

The EC data show Dhaka-20 logged the highest turnout, with 46.37% of votes cast, among the constituencies in Dhaka.

Out of a total of 81.63 lakh voters in Dhaka constituencies, 21.17 lakh cast their votes. The ruling Awami League nominated candidates for 19 seats in Dhaka. The party candidates polled 19.20% of the total votes, which is 73.41% of the total casting votes in the constituencies.

On the other hand, the Jatiya Party fielded candidates in 15 seats in Dhaka. They received a total of 78,745 votes, which is 1.33% of the total votes for the seats and 5.04% of the total casting votes.

The winning candidates got 15.67 lakh votes in Dhaka constituencies. Their nearest rivals bagged a total of 3.45 lakh, which is only 16.32% of the casting votes. In some seats, the winners received more than 50 times the votes of their nearest rivals.

There were 119 candidates from smaller parties, including the Jatiya Party, excluding the winners and closest candidates in the Dhaka seats. The polling picture of these candidates is very tragic. In Dhaka constituencies, other than the winners and closest challengers, they got a total of 1.70 lakh votes, which is 8.06% of the total votes polled.

Only Awami League candidate Dr Enamur Rahman for Dhaka-19 secured a considerable number of votes, besides the winner and the nearest rival candidate.

He finished third with a total of 56,361 votes. Excluding his votes, 118 candidates from small parties in Dhaka seats bagged a total of around 1.14 lakh votes.

Awami League nominee Advocate Qamrul Islam emerged victorious in Dhaka-2 by securing the highest number of votes – more than 1.5 lakh. However, it is worth noting that the total number of voters in this seat is also the highest among the seats in Dhaka.  

Nasrul Hamid, the state minister for power, energy, and mineral resources, who ran as the ruling party candidate for Dhaka-3, was elected with the second-highest margin of votes.

Independent candidate Awlad Hossain was elected in Dhaka-4 by securing the least number of votes – 24,775, which is less than 10% of the total votes in the seat. The nearest rival Awami League's Sanjida Khanam received 2,198 votes less than the winner.

Dhaka-19 witnessed the highest competition between two independents, with Muhammad Saiful Islam winning the election with 84,412 votes compared to his nearest contender, Talukdar Md Tauhid Jung (Murad), who secured 76,202 votes. In this constituency consisting of Savar and Ashulia, the Awami League's Dr Enamur Rahman came in third.

The margin of votes between the winner and the closest challenger in Dhaka constituencies is the highest in Dhaka-2, where Advocate Qamrul Islam came victorious by securing about 1.44 lakh more votes than his nearest rival.

In one seat in Dhaka, the nearest rival got less than 1,000 votes. Additionally, in 10 seats, the total number of votes received by the closest competitor is less than 3,000 each.

In Dhaka-8, Awami League nominee AFM Bahauddin Nasim was elected by securing 46,610 votes, while his closest rival, Jatiyo Party candidate Zubair Alam Khan, received just 880 votes.

Again, the AL nominee for Dhaka-5 Sayeed Khokon was elected by polling 61,703 votes, while his closest rival Islami Oikya Jote's Rabiul Alam Majumdar got only 1,109 votes.

Apart from Dhaka-17 and Dhaka-18 constituencies, it has been seen that Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Jasad) candidate Md Abu Hanif received the least number of votes – just 68.

Bangladesh Nationalist Front (BNF) candidate Md Saiful Islam is in the second position in terms of getting the least number of votes by bagging 68 votes.

Bangladesh Sangskritik Muktijot candidate for Dhaka-5, Nurul Amin, received the third-lowest votes – 77. Bangladesh Supreme Party candidate Khandkar Enamul Nashir polled the fourth lowest votes – 94 – in Dhaka-8, and Bangladesh Congress candidate Sohail in Dhaka-4 secured 98 votes, making it the fifth lowest in terms of votes.