When the gates of KC Pilot School polling centre in Chalna municipality, Khulna opened at 8am yesterday, there were no voters waiting outside.
A few minutes later, five individuals hesitantly approached the centre, entering it after much consideration.
In the first 15 minutes of the municipal elections yesterday, only eight voters came to cast their votes at KC Pilot School centre in Chalna.
At 8:45am, there were only eight female voters waiting in queue at one of the booths; All other booths were empty.
Yet, around 9:15am, when the Dhaka Tribune asked Presiding Officer Mosaddeq Ali about voter turnout, he said 144 out of 1,433 listed voters had already cast their votes.
Asked how 144 votes were cast with such a thin presence of voters, Mosaddeq snapped at these reporters: “Go talk to the polling agents if you have any confusion.”
Later, the Dhaka Tribune visited the centre a number of times throughtout the day. Each time, voters were scarce in the polling booths.
But after the voting ended at 4pm, Mosaddeq announced that nearly 86.39% votes had been cast in the centre.
The Dhaka Tribune visited several other polling centres, none of which had a significant voter turnout, which the locals claimed as well.
Yet, surprisingly, after the vote-casting ended, presiding officers of nine polling centres, including Chalna Pre-Cadet School and Nakul Chandra Basu Government High School, announced that their centres had received nearly 85% votes on average.
Nur Ali Shaikh, who cast his vote at KC Pilot School, told the Dhaka Tribune that he was the 151st voter at the centre. “I was quite surprised, because the centre was nearly empty. My house is right in front of the centre, and I did not see any crowd of voters. No incidence of violence occurred either.”
Khadiza Begum, an elder voter at Chalna Pre-Cadet School, said she had come to cast vote despite being ill because she had heard about the low turnout at the centre.
The Dhaka Tribune also talked to two polling agents at KC Pilot School, Anisur Rahman Babu, agent of the BNP candidate, and Hemayet Mandal, agent of an independent candidate, who said they were not aware of any disturbances outside the polling centre, but could not say what was happening inside.
There was no reports of violence or unusual incidents outside the polling centres in Chalna, and voters who came to vote expressed satisfaction over the atmosphere.
Nesar Ali Gazi, 65, said: “I am happy about the overall election atmosphere in the area. I did not see any violence, and the vote-casting went quite peacefully.”
