The first phase of the upazila polls were held in a fair, peaceful and neutral manner and elections officials conducted the polls properly, said Election Working Group (EWG) in a report here today.
"The average turnout in poling centers, the EWC observed during the upazila elections was 59.19%," said the EWG official Roksana Khandker at a press conference.
In the report, the EWG said its observers found long queue of voters in front of 56.2% polling centres at 8:30am. Overall situation was peaceful in most of the polling centres, it added.
The EWG recorded a total of 11 violent incidents outside the polling centres. Its observers did not find any incident of intimidating minority and tribal people to refrain them from casting votes, it said.
It spotted 10 polling centres where candidates provided transport facilities to bring voters to the polling centres, which was a violation of election rules.