What we saw: TBS reporters' first-hand account of Gazipur City Corporation Elections

The following are accounts of the election day in Gazipur on Thursday from two reporters of The Business Standard. The reporters entered Gazipur around 7am in the morning.

Zia Chowdhury

I visited around 24 centres, mostly in the Gazipur Chowrasta, Shibbari, Tongi, Board Bazar, Gazipura, Bason and Gacha areas of the Gazipur Metropolitan area. 

These made up wards 15, 16, 25, 26, 35, 50, 32. 

In most of the centres, we didn't see any Table Clock [Zaida Khatun] symbol polling agents or even posters and placards. 

This wasn't restricted to just the polling centres. We barely saw a single poster of the mayoral candidate anywhere in the city.

But I also saw in the Gazipur Sadar area, in two to three centres, polling agents wearing different symbols, but convincing people to vote for the table clock.

This was seen in Joydevpur Government Girl's School, Shaheed Sriti High School and Kazi Azimuddin College. All these fell in the area dominated by Zahangir, Zaida's son.  

In my observation, female voter turnout was lower than male. In a women only polling centre, I saw that voting took much more time than usual – around 15 to 20 minutes. This was mainly down to unfamiliarity with the electronic voting machines (EVMs), technical glitches and fingerprints not being matched, according to the presiding officers present.

In Tongi, Bason, Gacha and Gazipur areas, voter turnout dipped after 12pm. 

Many polling centres were found completely empty after 2pm. A few voters turned up around 3:30pm, but the number was negligible. 

I did not notice any clashes. I saw some supporters of boat and hand fan symbols chanting slogans near the polling centres, which was a violation of the electoral code of conduct. They were then driven away by police and baton-charged several times.  

Overall the situation was visibly peaceful. 

It should be noted that floating voters – who are undecided and don't vote for one party consistently – usually from the factory areas, did not show up at the centres. 

What was interesting was the police presence. Police officials were brought from Jhenaidah, Brahmanbaria and Chattogram to maintain law and order. This wasn't normal, compared to past elections. Mostly policemen from adjacent districts are called for additional security.

At most polling stations, local policemen were not restricted to centres according to their police stations. 

Law enforcers from different districts were posted at centres, possibly to ensure impartiality. 

Jahidul Islam

We visited around 30 polling stations. I visited centres in wards- 1, 3, 8, 9, 13, 16, 17, 26 of Gazipur City Corporation. 

Although most of the centres barely had any voters after noon, I saw hundreds of people waiting to exercise their franchise at the centre in ward-1, even before polling had begun.

The EVM machine there was switched off for more than an hour. 

I did not see any agent for Zaida Khatun in any centre except two polling booths in Dewailia Bari.

Voters from almost all the centres reported difficulties in casting their votes on EVMs. Voters complained that they were not able to vote in two-thirds of the centres.

Despite the presence of law and order enforcement officials in the polling stations, leaders and activists were also seen with their entourages.

By noon, most centres saw less than 20% voter turnout. 

Some booths in women polling stations saw long queues early in the morning. Many returned from the polling station as their fingerprints did not match.

In several centres, polling officers were seen sitting idle since noon. The law and order situation in the centre was normal.

I saw some sporadic clashes between supporters of councillor candidates in a few centres.

The number of law enforcement personnel from distant districts was higher than that of nearby districts.