After almost 13 years, voting is being held in Jessore's Benapole municipality. Voters have been balloting in a peaceful atmosphere since Monday morning.
Benapole Bazar Government Primary School, the centre of Ward No 5 of the municipality, saw a good turnout of both male and female voters. Queues of men and women could be seen at separate booths in this centre.
The presiding officer of this centre Md Rafiqul Islam said that voting has started from 8am. Voters have been in full attendance at the polling station since morning. Total voters in this centre are 2,403. Out of this, 1,255 are women and 1,148 male voters.
Nasir Uddin is contesting for the mayoral post on the Awami League supported boat symbol and business leader Mofizur Rahman Sajan is contesting as an independent candidate on the mobile phone symbol.
Apart from this, 47 people are contesting for councillor posts in nine wards and 15 people are contesting for reserved women seats.
Total voters in this municipality is 30,385.
The first election was held on 13 January 2011 after the formation of Benapole municipality in 2006 out of 11 villages of Benapole union. After that there were no more elections. On April 27, 2022, the municipal council was declared dissolved and the Sharsha Upazila Nirbahi Officer was appointed as the administrator.
