Voters in the northern districts, where most polling centres are said to be vulnerable to violence, are saying they would wait and assess the situation during the first few hours of voting before deciding whether they should head to cast their ballots.
Despite sporadic incidents of violence in the region, many of the voters told the Dhaka Tribune they were hoping that the municipality elections would be peaceful.
There are also concerns on whether a free and fair election would be possible today following complaints that many mayoral aspirants – on the last day before election – had been distributing money among local voters in a desperate bid to secure votes.
The negative practices, however, have failed to curb the enthusiasm of optimistic voters who look forward to practising their voting rights.
“If there is no violence surrounding the vote I will cast my ballot tomorrow (today), as the two candidates are closely-contested here,” said Awal, a voter of Badarganj municipality in Rangpur.
In Badarganj, the main battle of ballots is expected to be between Awami League’s Uttam Kumar Saha and independent candidate Ajijul Haque.
In Dinajpur municipality, there are four candidates; but the main fight would be between BNP’s Syed Jahangir Alam, and Awami League’s Anwarul Islam.
Also in the district, nine mayor candidates are running in Phulbari municipality; the most popular candidates, however, are Murtuza Sarkar Manik, an independent, and Shahdat Ali, from the BNP.
Moving to Lalmonirhat, voters in Patgram municipality said they expect Awami League candidate Shamser Ali to win over his nearest rival, BNP’s AKM Mostafa Salauzzaman Opel.
In Lalmonirhat Sadar municipality, there are six candidates running for the mayor’s office; but Awami League candidate Riajul Islam Rintu and BNP’s Abdul Halim are dominating election talk in the town.
In Nilphamari’s Saidpur municipality, BNP’s Amjad Hossain Sarkar and Jatiya Party’s Joynal Abedin are leading the race among four mayoral aspirants.