‘Would have come earlier if I knew so many voters were here already’

A huge voter turnout has been witnessed in Gazipur City Corporation elections as voters started to crowd the polling centres since Thursday morning.

During a visit in Madinatul Ulum Hafizia Madrasa centre of Ward No 26 of the Gazipur metropolitan, long queues of voters were seen since morning.

They expressed their happiness after exercising their votes.

Rashida Akhtar, who came to vote in this centre, said: “I came to the centre at 7:30am. I am happy to get a chance to cast my vote first in EVM when polling starts from 8am. It took less than a minute to cast my vote.”

Dhaka Tribune

Though voting started at 8am, the presence of voters in the centre was seen before the start of voting. 

As the day progresses, long queues have formed at every centre.

Voters expressed their happiness after casting their votes in a festive mood.

They also said that they needed to wait in a long queue to enter polling booths to cast their votes. 

Hajera Begum, 60, said that voting is underway in a peaceful manner. There is no problem in the polling station.I came to the centre 10 minutes before the polling started. I am very happy to be able to cast my vote within a short time of entering the room.”

Another voter Babul Chandra Ghosh said that he stood in queue around 9:30am. 

He said: “I could not enter the room even after standing for half an hour due to the huge presence of voters. I needed to wait a long time. However, compared to other years, in this year's election, voters have appeared at the centre since morning. This means that people have come to vote spontaneously in this election.”

Nazrul Islam, 52, said that after standing in line at 8am, he entered the polling booth and cast his vote after one and half an hour. 

When asked why it took so long, he said: “There were many voters. I did not think that so many voters would come. If I had known earlier, I would have come at 7am and stood in line. He said it took four minutes to cast his vote.”

The male and female voters who were waiting said that it was difficult to stand under the sun due to the intense heat. Moreover, the voting situation is good in all aspects. Voters are happy too.

Momin Uddin, presiding officer of Madinatul Ulum Hafizia Madrasa centre, said that there was a huge voter turnout since morning. Voters are voting without disorder and chaos.