Voting underway in Sylhet, Rajshahi city polls
- Update Time : Wednesday, 21 June, 2023, 10:31 am
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Online Desk: Voting in City Corporation elections of Sylhet and Rajshahi cities began Wednesday morning using electronic voting machines (EVMs). The voting started at 8am and will continue until 4pm without any break.
Four contestants are vying for the mayoral post in Rajshahi where Awami League candidate AHM Khairuzzaman Liton is clearly ahead to make his hat-trick. Besides, there are some 112 candidates in the race for general councillor and 46 for reserved women councillor posts in 30 wards of the city.
There are 351,982 voters in the city of 96.72 square kilometres. Of them, 171,167 are males, 180,809 females and six are transgender ones.
In Sylhet, the main competition will be between Awami League candidate Anwaruzzaman Chowdhury and Jatiya Party candidate Nazrul Islam Babul for the mayor post though five other contenders are also there in the race. Apart from them, 273 general councillor candidates in 42 wards and 87 reserved women councillor candidates in 14 reserved wards are contesting the Sylhet city election. The total number of voters in this city of 79.50 square kilometres is 486,605. Among them, 253,763 are males and 232,842 females.
Like Gazipur, Barishal and Khulna, voting in the RCC and SCC polls are being held through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and there are adequate numbers of CCTV cameras installed in all the polling centres. Returning officer in the RCC polls Delwar Hossain said, “A total of 3,614 officials are conductingthe polling. Around 1,560 CCTV cameras have been installed in polling stations and there are 1,730 EVMs and troubleshooting officers will be available to address any technical glitches.”
Sylhet regional election officer and returning officer of the SCC polls Faisal Qadir said that all preparations have been made to conduct the polls peacefully.
Five-tier security measures have been taken for making the polls peaceful and free of any threat. According to security officials, some 5,500 law enforcers will discharge their duty in the RCC election, while the number will be 2,600 in SCC polls.
