Daily Times

DHAKA: Even octogenarian Shamsuddin braved the cold to exercise his right to vote. With the support of his family members, Shamsuddin, who uses a single name, came to a polling center to cast his ballot for an aspiring mayor from the party he supports.

“I’m glad to have the opportunity to exercise my right to vote for the mayoral candidate,” said Shamsuddin. “I’ve voted for the candidate who I believe will work to develop my area.” Enthusiasm was palpable as both the major parties – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) party and ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which have alternately held power since 1991, have joined the polls. Some 20 parties including AL and BNP, which sat out the 2014 national polls, have joined the municipal polls. Many old men and women like Shamsuddin were seen to queue up at the polling center in Savar on the outskirts of Dhaka to vote in the country’s first-ever local body polls on party nominations.

Around 7.1 million voters from 234 municipalities will vote Wednesday to elect around 3,924 public representatives, including 234 mayors from more than 12,000 candidates in the municipal polls, which are considered mini general elections in this country. BNP boycotted the last general election held in Jan. 2014 and quit the Dhaka and Chittagong city corporation polls halfway through this year, alleging vote rigging.

Wednesday’s polling was low key initially because of the winter cold in the morning in some parts of Bangladesh. As the day progressed, enthusiastic voters came out in large numbers and voting picked up. Long queues of voters have reportedly been seen at a large number of the centers. “I’m satisfied with the election atmosphere. Since the polls are on political party line nominations, many voters have come to cast their ballots for their parties’ mayoral candidates,” said fifty-something Fahmida Jigor Jahan, who had queued up to vote since morning.

Like Jahan, many voters were queueing at polling centers and braving the cold in Savar. “Voting is underway peacefully,” said Shahadat Hossain, presiding officer of a polling center in Savar. “We’ve instructed law enforcement officers to take steps to prevent any unlawful situations,” he said. Some 1,204 magistrates along with more than 100,000 law enforcement officers are reportedly ready to deal with potential incidents of election violence or breaches of the election code of conduct at the 3,500 polling stations in the election districts.

“We’ve decided to participate in the elections as two major parties are directly contesting in the polls to test their popularity, ahead of the next general elections,” said another voter Rahim Miah. Miah like young and first-time voters were particularly enthusiastic about casting their votes. “I have voted and the entire situation is peaceful.” No major unrest was reported anywhere. “Polling started peacefully at all the 3,500 polling stations spread all over the country,” an Election Commission (EC) official said. Polling started at 8 a.m. (local time) Wednesday and will end at 4 p.m.