Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad cast his vote in Rangpur City Corporation Elections on Thursday morning.

Ershad, also special envoy of the prime minister, cast vote at Shishumongol Primary School at about 9:30am. His brother, JM Quader, who is also the vice chairman of the party, local government state minister Moshiur Rahman Ranga also accompanied Ershad to the polling center.

After casting his vote, Ershad told reporters that the polling in the election would be free and fair and its result would have an impact on the upcoming national elections.

He said this election is a test for the election commissioner.

Meanwhile, while Awami League-nominated candidate Sarfuddin Ahmed Jhantu at Salema Girls' High School, Jatiya Party-nominated Mostafizur Rahman Mostafa at Alamnagar Government Primary School and BNP-nominated candidate Kawsar Zaman Babla at Dewantuli Government Primary School polling centres in the morning.

The three mayoral candidates—Sarfuddin Ahmed Jhantu (Boat),  Mostafizur Rahman Mostafa (Plough) and Kawser Zaman Babla (Sheaf of Paddy)—expressed their satisfactions after casting votes, saying that the polling is  progressing peacefully in a festive mood.

The Election Commission (EC) has deployed over 5,500 security personnel and taken four-tier leaf-proof security blanket in the RpCC area for ensuring peaceful voting in all 193 polling centres.

A number of voters expressed their satisfactions over the security measures taken by the EC for ensuring a peaceful election in RCC.

A total of 283 candidates, including seven for mayoral candidates, 211 candidates for 33 general councilor posts and 65 candidates for 11 reserved female councilor posts, are contesting the city polls.

The voting of Rangpur City Corporation Election begins at about 8:00am on Thursday and continues peacefully with spontaneous participations of the voters.

‘Though the queues were a little thinner in the very beginning, the scenarios is being changed in all polling centres from 9:00am while around 20 per cent of the voters cast their votes till 10:00am,’ said Returning Officer (RO) Subhash Chandra Sarkar.

‘Tens of hundreds of enthusiastic voters, including males and females, are now standing in queues and waiting for their turns and the voter turnouts might be over 50 per cent by 12:00noon,’ he said.

Presiding Officers of Keranipara High School, Mariyam Nesa Girls High School, Rangpur Keramotia High School, Keranipara Government Primary School, Nurpur Poura Primary School and Salma Girls' High School polling centres said the voting was continuing peacefully.

They said about 18 to 22 percent voters have already given their votes by 10 am as the rate of vote casting is excellent and the turnout is expected higher than this time in the RCC polls.