The constituents of Dhaka-5 and Naogaon-6 have begun to cast their ballots to elect their new representatives in parliament.
Voting has been taking place without any untoward incident so far after the polls opened at 9:00am Saturday amid tight security, according to GM Sahtab Uddin, returning officer.
He urged voters to come to the polling centres to exercise their democratic rights without any trouble.
"Voting is continuing peacefully in each of the polling rooms in the constituency. It began at 9:00am using the EVMs. None of the EVMs had any technical glitch," said Md Ziaul Haque Khan, assistant returning officer of Naogaon-6.
Although the major political groups are contesting the by-election, there has not been any festivity surrounding the vote nor have there been reports of any major violence, bdnews24.com reports.
The voter turnout will be a major focus at the by-polls after only 5 per cent of constituents showed up to cast ballots in the Dhaka-10 by-election in March when the first coronavirus cases were reported in the country.
“Negative campaigns” and concerns about the infection dissuaded the voters from going to the polling centres, according to Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda. But he expects the turnout to be bigger this time.
“More people will come to vote if the competition is intense.”
The Election Commission has also clamped restrictions on vehicular movement in the constituencies.
