Awami League mayoral candidate AHM Khairuzzaman Liton in the Rajshahi City Corporation polls has said the BNP made a mistake by not participating in the election.
He made this comment after casting his vote at the Satellite Town High School polling centre at around 9am on Wednesday.
Liton said: "There are BNP-Jamaat councillor candidates in the election. They have some voters of their own. I do not know which side their votes will go to. But even if they look at the development [of Rajshahi], they should vote for boat (the electoral symbol of the Awami League).”
He also said that the polls are being held in a fair and peaceful manner.
Liton said if the BNP had participated in the RCC election, “they would understand their position; we could understand their position as well.”
“This election would have been really good. But if they choose not to come, there is nothing to do.”
The mayoral candidate of the ruling party also expressed hope that the voter turnout will be over 60%.
For the first time in RCC history, the election is being held through EVMs at all 155 centres. There will also be CCTV Cameras at each centre.
There are 351,982 voters to exercise their right of franchise in 1,153 rooms of the 155 polling centres in 30 wards.
A total of 161 candidates are in the election race. Of them, three for mayor, 112 for general councillors in 30 wards and 46 for 10 reserved seats for women councillors.
The mayoral candidates are the Awami League-nominated candidate, former mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton (boat), Jatiya Party's Saiful Islam Swapan (plough) and Jaker Party's Latif Anwar (rose).
Around 3,500 members of the police, 400 from the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), 200 from the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and 1,860 Ansar members will discharge election duties.
