Female voters outnumbered their male counterparts in a number of polling centres in Dhaka’s Dohar, one of the 97 upazilas that saw the first phase of elections yesterday.
The enthusiastic female voters said they were encouraged to cast votes by their family members and the election campaigners.
A festive mood prevailed at the poll centres which brought the voters here in large numbers.
Around 2pm, a queue of women was found in front of Meghula Government Primary School. A separate line was there for male voters.
“So far, over a thousand voters have exercised their franchise in this polling centre. More than half of them are women,” said Monir Hossain, the presiding officer.
He was overwhelmed by the presence of a large number of women in the queues since morning and happy that no untoward situation had taken place.
“They [women] came in small groups led by an older member
of their family or neighbourhood. Some had babies on their laps,” he said.
An elderly voter Almenda Banu said she came with her two daughters, a daughter-in-law and two grand children to cast vote. The whole family was in a festive mood.
“My husband passed away a year back. If he were alive, he would have brought us to the polling centre,” said Almenda, whose son and a son-in-law are expatriate workers in a Middle East country.
“I think the presence of male voters is thinner than that of females as almost in every family male members are either expatriates or out of the town to earn livelihood,” explained Monir.
Almost a similar picture was seen at Narisha Paschim Char Government Primary School, a few kilometres off the Meghula primary school.
Officials out there said there were two polling centres in the school of which one was designated for women.
Around 1pm, the polling centres for women witnessed a large number of crowd in comparison with those for men.
“So far 1,097 of 2,209 votes have been cast. I hope after the lunch time many more voters will come,” said Md Kamrul Islam, presiding officer of the women’s polling centre.
Visiting at least 11 polling centres in the upazila, no large queue was noticed, but the presence of voters continued till afternoon.
“Voting ended almost peacefully. No untoward situation was created, and so voters were not in a hurry. They came in their convenient time,” said Jasim Uddin, the assistant returning officer of the upazila.
“I think 55%-57% vote has been cast. We will announce the exact figure after counting,” he told the Dhaka Tribune over phone shortly after voting concluded at 4pm.
At Dohar, 58 of 75 polling centres had been marked “important” considering the possibility of violence. Those polling centres were situated at four unions of Muksedpur, Narisha, Bilashpur and Kusumhati, where extra security measures had been taken to avert untoward situation.
Five candidates, one from Awami League background, one independent, two BNP and its associate bodies and one from Islami Shashantantra contested the chairman post.
There were 13 contestants for the vice-chairman post and five for the woman vice-chairman post.