Dhaka city corporation polls yesterday experienced a poor turnout just after BNP-backed candidates rejected the mayoral races.
The Dhaka Tribune correspondents found a large number of voters queueing up at different polling centres in the capital but they found the crowd dwindling after the withdrawal. And after 1:30pm polling agents could hardly see any voters.
Sayeed Wayesqurni, 23, a voter of Ward 9 of Dhaka North said he wanted to cast his vote in the afternoon but he changed his mind after the major opposition quit the fray.
Presiding Officer of Wake-up High School in Mirpur Anwar Hossain said: “We need a door-to-door campaign to encourage them to cast votes.”
While visiting Darus Salam Government High School around 1:15pm some youths were seen driving voters out of the ground and started casting votes themselves.
Fatema Hamid Liza, a first-time voter of the area, said some youths drove her out of the centre when she went to vote.
When contacted after an hour Presiding Officer of the centre Md Malekul Islam over phone said no one after the incident had come to cast vote in the centre.
Presiding Officer of Shah Ali High School Zaman said he could see only a couple of persons who came to his centre to cast votes.