Local observers said voter turnout was very low yesterday as many candidates had not tried to encourage the voters to exercise their franchise.
“We have observed the election in a very small scale. In the morning, the voter turnout was very low,” Munira Khan, president of Fair Election Monitoring Alliance, told the Dhaka Tribune. “I noticed that the voters were basically confused and the candidates did not support them to cast their votes.”
The media showed what happened centring the elections, she said.
Abdul Alim, director of Election Working Group, said the voter turnout had been very low while the extent of violence huge. He said they would hold a press conference today at the National Press Club to disclose their observations.
Only four foreign election observers – from India and Bhutan – and 30 foreign journalists observed the 10th parliamentary elections.
According to the EC, as many as 1,250 local observers got passes while 1,345 print journalists and 2,343 from electronic media received approval to cover yesterday’s election. Local journalists got passes from the returning officers concerned.
The EU, the US and the Commonwealth did not send any observers.
