Tension has mounted in Cumilla with results from 101 out of 105 polling stations in the city corporation elections showing that Monirul Haque Sakku and Arfanul Haque Rifat are neck and neck in the race for mayor.
Sakku, the expelled BNP leader who won the last two elections, has received 48,492 votes, only 629 votes ahead of ruling Awami League leader Rifat, who polled 47,863, reports bdnews24.com.
Nizam Uddin Kaiser, another expelled BNP leader, polled 28,142, according to the results published by Returning Officer Shahedunnabi Chowdhury from the district’s Shilpakala Academy on Wednesday evening after daylong ballot ended without any major incident.
The voting was held through electronic machines, but the results have been delayed as rains stopped some presiding officers from travelling and reporting to the returning officer, Shahedunnabi said.
Sakku visited the control room around 9pm as hundreds of supporters of Rifat shouted: “boat, boat”, the electoral symbol of the ruling party.
Police later intervened in a bid to remove the supporters from the building.
Five candidates are vying for the position of mayor while 106 in the race for councillor posts and 36 for reserved posts in the election.
Rifat was satisfied with the voting atmosphere at Cumilla Victoria Government College centre. He said he is hopeful of victory.
"Everything is all right, but EVMs were having minor trouble," Sakku said after casting his ballot at the Hossamia High School centre.
He joined the race this year as an independent candidate after his expulsion from the opposition BNP, which says it will not take part in any election under the Sheikh Hasina administration.
Kaiser, who is also standing for Cumilla mayor as an independent candidate after his expulsion from the BNP, cast his ballot at the Victoria College centre as well.
"Casting ballots through EVMs is difficult for older voters and slows down voting," he said.
"We’ve found no disruptions or irregularities during the election. No allegation of obstruction to voter turning up was reported to us. The polls have proven that people's interest in casting ballots has increased," said Mohammad Abed Ali, chairman of the Election Monitoring Forum.
Abed said pre-election campaigns were not enough to introduce the EVM method to general voters. Many of them had to try a couple of times or more before being able to cast their ballots through EVMs.
The Election Commission has expressed satisfaction over the voting in Cumilla following their monitoring through CCTV cameras. The commission expects a 60 percent voter turnout this time.