The usual sight of voters queuing up at polling centres was missing on Thursday (Feb 28) in the Dhaka North mayoral by-election.

Many voting centres in the capital saw no votes casted in the first couple of hours since 8am, when the polls opened.

Early morning downpour contributed to fewer voters in the early hours, however, the situation didn’t improve later in the day when the weather clear.

The Election Commission (EC) Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed attributed the absence of “heavyweight opponents” in the mayoral by-polls to the low turnout.

Observers, however, say the people have lost faith in the democratic process after the recent elections.

They also pointed out the lack of worthy candidates contesting polls as one of the key reasons behind people losing interest in exercising their franchises.

“When people start to believe that they are not part of a certain process, they tend to lose interest in those,” rights activist Sultana Kamal told Bangla Tribune.

“People have developed a sense that— I will go to cast my vote. But, at the end of the day I will not see the results reflecting my choice; So people are not going to the polling centres,” she added.

The core essence of democracy is participation, according to the former caretaker government adviser.

“When a democratic process is not participatory, it indicates that people have lost their faith on it”, she said before adding it should be looked into seriously.

The mayoral by-polls had no candidates who could have attract the voters, according to former election commissioner M Shakhawat Hossain. “There were no such figures in the scene. Even, the campaigns weren’t that vibrant.”

 People have taken it for granted that the eventual winner is picked in advance, he said. “When consecutive elections end up as not credible, people lost their interest and faith.”

Dhaka Universities’ Anthropology Department Teacher Rasheda Rownok Khan said, “Politics, election, ballot box — were topics of most interest to the Banglalees. But, the voter turnout on polls day was significantly low. People’s interest diminished since the voting lacked competition.”

When asked about the low turnout, ruling Awami League’s mayoral candidate Atiqul Islam told Bangla Tribune, “It was raining since morning in the capital. Besides, a big party didn’t participate. If they did, the election would have been more vibrant.”

According to some analysts, voters didn’t consider the mayor election that important as the mayor’s term will expire in one year.

Atiqul, however, said he doesn’t think the remaining time of the mayor’s tenure an issue.

“Time is not the big deal here. A big political party didn’t take part in the election; which made a difference,” he said.

“We know that we have a short span of time to our disposal and accordingly we planned which is laid out in our manifesto,” said Atiqul before adding, “We don’t consider one year that short a span.”