March 28, 2024, 6:16 pm


Nirmal Barman

Published:
2018-05-15 19:09:05 BdST

Voting suspended in a centre over ballot snatching


FT ONLINE

The voting was suspended at a polling centre in ward no 24 of in the ongoing Khulna City Corporation elections following snatching of ballot papers by miscreants on Tuesday.

Presiding officer Khalilur Rahman said a group of miscreants snatched ballot papers at a polling station in Khulna Government Iqbal Nagar School around 10:30am and sealed all the papers.

Later, they suspended the voting at the centre, he added.

Meanwhile, the voting at Fatema High School in ward no 22 was suspended for two hours from 10:30am following an incident of false balloting.

Voting in the Khulna City Corporation (KCC) election began at 8am to elect its new mayor and councillors. The balloting will continue till 4 pm without any break.

Earlier, Awami League-backed mayoral candidate Talukder Abdul Khalek casted his votes at polling centre in Pioneer Girls’ High School around 8:07am.

He said that the voting was going on in a peaceful and festive manner.

However, BNP mayoral candidate Nazrul Islam Manju alleged the ruling party men have driven out his polling agents from at least 40 centres.

A total of five mayoral candidates, 148 general councillor and 38 reserved-seat female councillor candidates are there in the election race.

The mayoral contenders are Awami League’s Talukder Abdul Khalek, Nazrul Islam Manju of BNP, Jatiya Party’s Shafiqur Rahman Mushfiq, Islami Andolan Bangladesh’s Maulana Mozammil Haque and CPB’s Mizanur Rahman Babu.

They are contesting the election with their respective party’s symbol, which is the first in the Khulna City Corporation.

The Election Commission has taken additional security measures to avoid any kind of violence with the city going under a security blanket ahead of the much-awaited election.

A total of 493,093 voters -- 248,986 males and 244,107 females -- are expected to exercise their franchise in the election.

Of the total 289 polling stations, 234 have been considered vulnerable.

Some 9,500 policemen, and members of Border Guard Bangladesh, Armed Police Battalion and Ansar remained deployed in the election areas.

Sixteen platoons of BGB consisting of 640 members remained deployed from Sunday afternoon while 31 magistrates remained stationed in as many wards.

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