KCC polls: Voting suspended in one centre over ballot snatching

Published : 15 May 2018, 14:31

Sahos Desk

Voting was suspended at a polling centre in ward No 24 of the ongoing Khulna City Corporation (KCC) election following snatching of ballot papers by miscreants on Tuesday.

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

He said they later suspended the voting at the centre.

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

Voting in the KCC election began at 8am to elect its new mayor and councillors. It will continue till 4 pm without any break.

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

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

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

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 symbols, which is the first in the KCC.

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 identified 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.

Source: unb

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