Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Nurul Huda has blamed the political parties for the low turnout of voters at the Dhaka City Corporation elections.
I hope that once the day progresses, the number of voters will rise, hoped the CEC.
He made the comment on Thursday (Feb 28) morning after casting his vote at the IES High School in the captital’s Uttara.
“Since the mayor will be elected for one year, voters may not be interested.”
Also, the turnout may be low since all political parties are not taking part, he observed.
“We have taken all initiatives to hold a free, fair and neutral elections.”
Voting is undergoing at a total of 36 extended wards, including 18 wards under Dhaka North City Corporation and 18 under Dhaka South City Corporation from 8am on Thursday, which will continue till 4pm without any break.
A total of 382 mayor, councilor and reserved women councilor candidates are participating in the election.
The four other aspirants for the mayor post are – Jatiya Party’s (JP) Shafin Ahmed, National People’s Party’s (NPP) Anisur Rahman Dewan, People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) Shahin Khan and independent candidate Abdur Rahim.
Atiqul Islam is contesting with Awami League’s ‘boat’ symbol while Shafin Ahmed with ‘plough’, Anisur Rahman Dewan with ‘Mango’, Shahin Khan with ‘Tiger’ and Abdur Rahim with ‘Table Clock’. In terms of population, the DNCC is the country’s largest city corporation area with 2.35 million voters.
The mayoral post fell vacant after the death of former mayor Annisul Huq on Nov 30, 2017.
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