Dhaka: The capture of polling stations, large-scale rigging and intimidation allegedly by ruling party men marked the elections to Dhaka south, Dhaka north and Chittagong corporations on Tuesday with boycott by pro-BNP candidates halfway through.

The voting that started at 8am simultaneously in the three cities following a three-week high-decibel campaign by candidates ended at 4:00pm.

Shortly after the voting came to an end, election officials started vote counting while results from various centres are being reported during filing of the report at about 9:00pm.

A very low turnout was reported from the three cities though there was no immediate official figure from the Election Commission.  

However, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad claimed that the elections in three city corporations were held peacefully except some stray incidents, and urged all the candidates to accept the election results and take forward the country’s democratic values.

Rakibuddin also claimed that the voter turnout in the polling centers was huge as there was no major disturbing incident during the election.

BNP boycotted the elections to all the three city corporations bringing the allegations of massive vote rigging by pro-Awami League men with the help of law enforcers and polling officials.

BNP standing Committee member Barrister Moudud Ahmed announced the decision at a press briefing at BNP central office at Nayapaltan in the city at noon.

Later in the afternoon, citizen’s platform Agamir Dhaka north’s mayoral candidate Zonayed Saki also rejected the polls. ‘We’ve decided to reject the polls after we observed a number of incidents of vote manipulation and irregularities,’ he said terming the election unfair.

A total of 1188 mayoral and councillor candidates vied for 182 posts in the elections to the three city corporations, where some 60 lakh people were expected to exercise the franchise in 2,701 polling stations.

Of them, 48 candidates contested polls for three mayoral posts, while 249 for 45 reserved seats and 891 for 134 general councillor posts in the cities.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina cast her vote at Dhaka City College polling centre under Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) at about 8:00am.

Awami League-blessed mayoral candidate of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Annisul Huq cast his vote at Banani Bidyaniketon School and College around 8:30 am while BNP-backed mayoral candidate of DNCC Tabith Awal cast his vote along with his family members at Gulshan’s Manarat International School in the morning.

BNP alleged that ruling party men with the help of law-enforcers drove out the polling agents of their party-backed candidates from all the polling stations of Dhaka north and Dhaka south city corporation polls by noon.

After the declaration, BNP-blessed mayoral candidates’ polling agents were virtually absent from the polling stations in the capital amid strong presence of the supporters of ruling party-backed mayoral candidates, visited by UNB correspondents.

Visiting a number of polling centres in Mirpur section 10, Mirpur section 2, Kafrul, Mirpur section 6, Uttara, Gulshan, Rampura, Fakirapool, Shahjahanpur, Shantinagar, Bailey Road, Segunbagicha, Motijheel, Old Dhaka, Dhanmondi, New Market, Badda, Banasri and Banani areas, UNB correspondents found only around 15-20 percent vote were cast in most of the centres till 2:00pm.

Supporters of ruling Awami League-backed mayoral and councilor candidates, mostly drawn from the AL’s front organisations, swarmed outside the polling centres and across major points of in the areas under the two cities.  

However, polling agents of other candidates, including BNP-backed mayoral candidates Tabith Awal and Mirza Abbas were found absent in most of the polling centres.

Voter turnout in booths across DSCC dropped dramatically following BNP’s decision to boycott the polls that came shortly after noon.

Meanwhile, a registered election observer from Mass Line Media Centre, a local NGO that has been engaged in observing elections since 2003, was forced to leave a polling centre at gunpoint, as ‘ruling party men’ engaged in acts of rigging.  

The entire story of what the observer, Syed Ibne Masud, saw as he arrived at his assigned polling centre, the Siddheswari Girls’ High School in Dhaka South City Corporation, in the morning, is a particularly disturbing event on a day when there is no shortage of incidents that discredited the election overall.  

This was later confirmed to UNB by Kamrul Hassan, executive director of MMC. He also said Masud was so shaken by the experience that he had to be relieved of his duties.

Kamrul Hassan, whose organization will give its formal verdict on the polling soon, said the day had been ‘rife with irregularities’. ‘The vote was perhaps clean in just 1 in 100 polling centres. The other 99 witnessed irregularities of various kinds,’ Hassan said.  

Asked whether the election could be termed credible, the MMC boss said simply: ‘No’.  

The day was also an unpleasant one for journalists as those covering irregularities at the polling centres during elections came under attack, harassed and threatened by ruling party activists in many ways.

Till afternoon, the activists of Awami League and its associations reportedly shot a journalist and physically assaulted at least 10 others. They also purportedly threatened and terrorised dozen others while discharging their duties at various polling stations.

The bullet-hit journalist was identified as Yeasin Rabbi, a reporter of newsportal risingbd.com. He was shot at a polling station in Basabo area.  

In Chittagong, BNP-backed mayoral candidate for Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) Manjur Alam boycotted the election bringing allegations of huge vote rigging.

The announcement came from a press conference at Manjur's main election office at Dewanhat in the port city at about 11:20am.

Besides, police arrested four supporters of BNP-backed mayoral candidate of Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) Manjur Alam for distributing money among the voters in Khatiber Hat area of the port city early today.

In DSCC, 20 contenders contested the election for the mayoral post, while 97 females for 19 reserved seats and 390 contestants for 57 general councillor posts. There are 18,70,753 voters -10,09,286 males and 8,61,467 females - under 4,746 booths of 889 polling stations.

In DNCC, 16 candidates ran for the mayoral post, while 89 females for 12 reserved seats and 281 contenders for 36 general councillor posts.

There are 23,45,374 voters --12,24701 males and 11,20,673 females- under 5,892 booths of 1093 polling stations.

In CCC, 12 contestants vied for the mayoral post, while 62 females for 14 reserved seats and 213 contenders for 41 general councillor posts.

There are 18,13,449 voters --9,37,053 males and 8,76,396 females- under 4,906 booths of 719 polling stations.

On 18 March, the EC announced election schedules for the three city corporations.