The Awami League mayoral candidates took lead in both Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) in the counting of votes in the elections to the two city cities on Saturday, reports UNB.
In DNCC, ruling party contestant Atiqul Islam bagged 10,554 votes while his nearest rival Tabith Awal of BNP polled 6,259 in 32 centres out of total 1,318.
In DSCC, AL mayoral runner Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh got while BNP’s Ishraque Hossain polled.
Earlier, balloting in the DNCC and DSCC elections ended on 4:00pm amid ‘low voter turnout’ and reports of sporadic violence and allegations of BNP agents being driven out of polling stations.
The full-fledged use of Electronic Voting Machines or EVMs for recording votes instead of traditional ballot papers evoked mixed reactions from both voters and politicians.
The voting began at 8am and continued till 4pm without any break. The two city corporations had more than 5.45 million voters.
Though initial reports give an impression of low voter turnout, there was no official word yet on the turnout.
Prime Minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina cast her vote at Dhaka City College centre on Saturday morning.
Awami League candidate Atiqul Islam and BNP’s Tabith Awal are in the race for the mayor’s office in DNCC. In DSCC, the mayoral race is being led by AL’s Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh and BNP’s Ishraque Hossain.
