Voting in the Barisal City Corporation elections is underway peacefully on Saturday.
The polling in the city for the third time started at about 8am in a bid to elect the 41-seated body amid drizzles.
Sources said the presence of female voters were satisfactory in different polling centres.
A total of 162 candidates are contesting for the 41 seats.
Of them three are contesting for the mayoral seat, 116 for 30 general ward councillor and 45 for 10 reserved female councillor posts.
Vote casting of mayor candidates:
Shawkat Hossain Hiron, city Awami League president and 14-party alliance supported Sammilito Nagorik Committee nominated mayoral candidate, with Television symbol, cast his vote at Nuria School centre close to his house.
While talking with the journalists, Hiron said he is 100% confident about getting people’s mandate.
He claimed he will win the race and people will cast their vote for him as he has done a lot for the development of the city and provided expected social service. Meanwhile, former district BNP president Ahsan Habib Kamal who is also the 18-party alliance-backed and Jatiyatabadi Nagorik Parishad nominated mayoral candidate, cast his vote at the Polytechnic Institute centre.
After casting his vote, he told reporters that he will win the mayoral race since the election is underway in a free and fairly manner and hopefully the results would not be changed.
However, he alleged that his polling agents were threatened at different centres by cadres of AL-backed candidate Hiron.
Mahmudul Haque Khan Mamun, Jubo League Leader and independent mayoral candidate, cast his vote at Mathuranath School centre at about 9am
Mamun also alleged that the supporters of Hiron were threatening his supporters. However, he also claimed that he will be the winner as young and non-political neutral people are casting their votes for him.
EVM use:
Some 2,447 male voters at Zilla School polling centre and 1,734 voters in Commercial College centre under ward 16 will cast their votes in the newly introduced Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).
Our correspondent reports that the voters of both the centres said use of EVM was good for speedy voting and they did not face any problem while using it.
Stray incidents:
An incident of chase and counter chase was encountered at the Kawnia Girls School centre.
According to witnesses, the supporters of mayoral candidates Hiron and Kamal engaged in an altercation with each other as Hiron’s wife reportedly entered the voting centre and tried to talk to the people.
At one stage of the brawl, the supporters engaged in a chase and counter chase at about 9:40am.
Later, city BNP president and lawmaker Mojibor Rahman Sarwar rushed in and controlled BNP activists.
Jubayer, an election agent of Kamal at Sagordi Alia Madrasa centre in ward 24 alleged that Hiron slapped him as he resisted him to enter inside of a polling centre.
Election and security measure:
A total of 100 presiding officers, 614 assistant presiding officers and 1,228 polling officers are performing their duties in the 100 voting centres, according to concerned authorities.
More than 4,500 members of different law enforcing agencies including police, Ansar, Rab, BGB, Coast Guards have been deployed in order to keep the overall situation under control.
Meanwhile, 10 mobile courts led by administrative magistrates and five mobile courts led by judicial magistrates have been monitoring the entire voting procedure.
Sixty out of 100 voting centres were marked as “vulnerable.” However, Barisal Metropolitan Police Commissioner Md Shamsuddin termed the centres as “important” not “risk-prone.”
Observers:
Election observers of Fair Election Monitoring Alliance (Fema), Coast Trust, Khan Foundation and different right activists have been monitoring the election procedure, Enayet Hossain Chowdhury, district Fema secretary, said.
