Balloting for 33 wards of Rangpur City Corporation (RpCC) ended peacefully without any reports of violence at 4pm on Tuesday.
The voting took place via electronic voting machines (EVM) at 229 centres from 8am in the morning.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal said 45% voters have cast their votes till 2pm in the election.
“We have got some allegations of slow voting due to electronic voting machines (EVMs) but all the voters at the centres will be allowed to exercise their franchise till night if needed,” he said while talking to reporters at Election Commission Bhaban.
The Election Commission was monitoring the election through CC cameras from a control room.
Earlier, Rangpur City Corporation (RpCC) Elections Returning Officer Abdul Baten said that the balloting is ongoing in a fair and peaceful manner across the city.
Abdul Baten said there was a problem with the EVMs in one or two centres, but it was fixed immediately.
Regarding the fingerprints of some voters not matching, the returning officer said: "The weather was foggy and cold in the morning. Many people may have faced problems as their fingers were due to the cold.”
Meanwhile, a glitch in an electronic voting machine (EVM) delayed Jatiya Party (JaPa) mayoral candidate Mostafizur Rahman's voting by 30 minutes at the centre.
Later, Rahman left the polling centre and expressed his disappointment to the journalists present there.
He said: "When I went there to cast vote, I saw that the EVM was glitching. If this is the condition of EVMs, how will the people vote?”
There are a total of 4,26,470 listed voters in Rangpur city, which sees its fourth election on Tuesday.
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The Election Commission has in place six-tier security measures for the RpCC polls.
Nine candidates are vying for the mayoral position and 183 people are contesting councillors' posts under 33 wards. Sixty-eight female candidates are contesting in the polls for 11 reserved seats.
The mayoral candidates are immediate-past mayor Mostafizur Rahman Mostafa from Jatiya Party (JaPa), Hosne Ara Lutfa Dalia from the Awami League, Shafier Rahman from Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSaD), Khorshed Alam from Zaker Party, Amiruzzaman from Islami Andolon Bangladesh, Abu Raihan from Bangladesh Congress, Touhidur Rahman Mandal from Khelafat Majlish, while Mehedi Hasan and Latifur Rahman are contesting as independent candidates. Latifur was expelled from the post of district Awami League vice president.
Members of different law enforcement agencies, including police, Ansar and village police, Armed Police Battalion (APBn), Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) are on the ground across the city.
