Dhaka: Voting in the by-election to the mayoral post of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), and in 36 wards of Dhaka north and south city corporations (DSCC) began on Thursday amid rain.

The balloting that began at 8 am will continue 4 pm without any break.

Awami League’s Atiqul Islam cast his vote around 9:10 am at Nawab Habibullah Model School and College polling centre in city’s Uttara area, reports the UNB.

However, the voter turnout was seen poor in the morning due to the rain since early Thursday.

Five candidates are vying for the mayoral post, while 116 contenders for 18 general councillor posts and 45 aspirants for six reserved seats which are exclusively for women. Of them, one general councillor candidate was elected unopposed in the city.

The five mayoral candidates are Awami League’s Atiqul Islam (Boat), Jatiya Party’s Shafin Ahmed (Plough), NPP’s Anisur Rahman (Mango) and PDP’s Shahin Khan (Tiger) and independent runner Abdur Rahim (Table Clock).

The mayoral post fell vacant after former mayor Annisul Huq passed away on November 30, 2017. The last mayoral election held on April 28, 2015 saw a high-octane campaign by both Awami League’s Annisul and BNP’s Tabith Awal unlike this by-election.

A total of 2,345,374 voters are expected to exercise their franchise this time. But many of them said there was not much excitement.

In the DSCC, there are 125 contestants for 18 general councillor posts and 24 women for six reserved seats.