Voting in Khulna, Barishal city polls end; counting begins

The counting of votes began in Khulna City Corporation (KCC) and Barishal City Corporation (BCC) elections on Monday amid low voter turnout.

The counting began after the voting came to an end at 4pm.

Voters were seen standing in long queues at polling centres to cast their votes using electronic voting machines (EVMs) after the voting began at 8am. It continued till 4 pm without any break.

However, some minor alleged irregularities were reported in the both elections causing injuries to some people.

In Barishal, several supporters of mayoral candidates backed by Awami League (AL) and Islami Andolon Bangladesh were injured in a clash over entering a polling centre.

Additionally, Jatiya Party's mayoral candidate Iqbal Hossain Taposh and independent candidate Kamrul Islam Rupon alleged that voters were barred from coming to the polling stations in Barishal City Corporation (BCC) election.

In Khulna, Jatiya Party's mayoral candidate Md Shafiqul Islam Madhu alleged that his agents were barred from entering polling centres by the supporters of Awami League (AL) candidate in Khulna City Corporation (KCC) election.

The city corporation elections were monitored by the Election Commission from Dhaka through CCTV cameras.

A good number of law enforcers were deployed to ensure security at each polling station so that voters can exercise their right.

In the Khulna city corporation election, five candidates fought for the mayoral post, 136 for councillors in 29 general wards, and 30 for reserved seats. Two councillors for wards 13 and 24 were elected unopposed earlier.

Eleven platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) carried out their duty to ensure security in the KCC election along with 8,080 members from police, Ansar and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

There are 5,35,528 voters in 31 wards of Khulna city and there are 1,732 polling booths under 289 polling stations.

On the other hand, seven candidates competed for the mayoral post in the Barishal city polls.

Besides, 119 candidates were in the race for the posts of general councillor and 42 candidates for the reserved councillor posts.

Ten platoons of the BGB were deployed in Barishal along with 4,500 members of the law enforcing agencies.