Voting in the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) elections has ended amid low turnout of citizens at polling centres.
The voting ran across a total of 2,468 polling centres of the two city corporations from 8am and it will continued till 4pm without any break on Saturday.
The presence of voters gradually increasing in comparison to the early stage of the polls, the upward trend in voters’ turnout was not as satisfactory as expected.
As many as 3,010,273 people were expected exercise their right of franchise at the DNCC, and 2,453,194 at the DSCC elections.
Thirteen aspirants -- six in Dhaka north and seven in the south -- are vying for the posts of mayor.
After visiting a number of polling centers in Dhaka South and North city corporations on Saturday, our correspondents and photojournalists noticed a small increase in the number of voters at the centres.
However, they said the gathering of voters was limited.
"The voter turnout is low as young voters rise late from bed," said Dhaka North City Corporation’s Returning Officer Abul Quashem, after our correspondent’s visit to the IEC School and College centre in Dhaka's Uttara sector 5 in the morning.
“The presence of voters will increase after the youths wake up and come out,” he added.
Our correspondent Mizanur Rahman reported that the number of voters at four centres in Bhashantek School and College did increase, albeit slowly.
Some 8,599 voters are registered with the centres. Till 11am, only 780 voters cast their votes; however, more voters were coming towards the centres as the day wore on, he said.
Dhaka Tribune’s Hasan Al Javed reported from Old Dhaka that only a handful of voters were seen at Tikatuli Qamrunnesa Girls’ High School even after an hour of the polls’ opening.
However, the situation changed a lot in the first couple of hours, according to the news reports published around midday.
The entire election was held using EVMs instead of traditional ballot papers.
The last elections to the city corporations were held on April 28, 2015.
