Cumilla City election ends peacefully, vote counting underway

Counting of votes in Cumilla City Corporation (CuCC) election is underway after peaceful balloting that ended at 4pm today.

The voting started at 8 am and continued till 4 pm without any break. The voting took place through electronic voting machines (EVM).

The voters were seen standing in long lines at polling centres since morning to cast their votes in the third city corporation poll since its journey.

The Election Commission (EC), earlier, took all preparations for conducting free and fair elections. Three mayoral candidates cast their votes in their respective polling stations in the morning, reports BSS.

Awami League (AL) mayoral candidate Arfanul Haque Rifat and independent candidate Nizam Uddin Kaiser exercised their voting right at the Victoria College polling station in the city at 9 am. Independent candidate and former mayor Monirul Haque Sakku cast his vote at the same time at the polling station at Hochhamia High School in the city.

In the last two elections, BNP backed Monirul Haque Sakku was elected as the mayor. But the voters thought that this time Arfanul Haque Rifat would get extra benefit to be elected as the mayor since two expelled BNP leaders -- Monirul Haque Sakku and Nizam Uddin Kaiser - are contesting in the poll as independent candidates.

Apart from that the organizational activities and position of the ruling AL is far better than any time in the past.

Adequate law enforcement personnel were deployed at each polling station so that the voters can come to the polling booths without any hindrance. Law enforcement continues to patrol the city's main thoroughfares.

A total of 3,608 members of law enforcement agencies, including 105 mobile teams, 12 platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) members, 30 teams of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), about 50 executive magistrates and nine judicial magistrates were deployed and 75 check posts were set up at different points of the city to maintain the law and order during the voting.

In a bid to beef up the security during the voting, about 22 to 24 members of police, ansar, battalion ansar and village police were deployed at every polling center. For the first time, CCTV cameras were set up inside and outside the polling centers.

All of the candidates, including mayoral and councilor, and voters expressed satisfaction over the security measures.

At the city's Modern High School polling centre at 10am, voters were seen waiting in lines to cast their votes in a festive atmosphere. Voter Abdul Samad told BSS that the voting was held smoothly.

Hosneyara Begum, a woman voter at the center, said, "I have come to cast my vote. I was able to vote without any hassle".

Presiding Officer Abdul Baten said the atmosphere at the polling stations was good and voters were standing in lines to cast their votes. At the centre, more than 20 members of the law enforcement were on duty.

A total of 149 candidates, including five mayoral and councilor posts both general and reserved, are contesting in the polls. The voter number in the city corporation area is 229,920 including the new 22,000 voters. Of them, 112,826 are male, 117,092 female and two are third gender.