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Taposh wins landslide victory, Atiq leading

Dhaka City polls held peacefully barring stray incidents of violence

Published : Sunday, 2 February, 2020 at 12:00 AM  Count : 492

Taposh wins landslide victory, Atiq leading

Taposh wins landslide victory, Atiq leading

Awami League mayoral candidate Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh was unofficially elected in the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) elections with a big margin.
Taposh won landslide victory bagging 4,24,595 votes beating his nearest contestant BNP candidate Ishraq Hossain who got 2,36,512 votes.
Returning Officer at the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Md Abdul Baten declared the unofficial results of all 1,150 polling centers at his office at Shilpakala Academy here Saturday night. Earlier, the voting began at 8am and it continued till 4pm without any break. The election was held entirely through the electronic voting machines (EVMs) method for the first time in this major local body polls.
A total of six mayoral candidates contested in the Dhaka South City Corporation elections.
In the Dhaka North City Corporation poll Awami League candidate Atiqul Islam was leading with 370,061 votes while filing this report at 2:00 am. His nearest rival was BNP's Tabith Awal who secured 212,577 votes.
In DSCC, there were 1,150 polling centers for 24 lakh 53 thousand 194 voters. Of them, 12 lakh 93 thousand 441 were male and 11 lakh 59 thousand were 753 female. DSCC has 1,150 polling centers while it has 75 general and 25 reserved wards.
Around 50,000 members of law enforcement agencies were deployed in the two city corporations to ensure the security.
A total of 129 executive magistrates and 64 judicial magistrates were deployed in the two city corporations. Fifty four executive magistrates will stay in the election field in Dhaka north and 75 more in Dhaka south till February 2.Female voters queue up to cast votes at Narinda High School in Old Dhaka in DSCC polls on Saturday.	PHOTO: OBSERVER

Female voters queue up to cast votes at Narinda High School in Old Dhaka in DSCC polls on Saturday. PHOTO: OBSERVER

A total of 1013 local observers of 22 institutions monitored the polls while 74 persons acted as foreign observers.
The much-talked about and high media focused elections to two city corporations- Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) - were held peacefully on Saturday despite apprehension of violence spread by certain quarters. Barring some stray incidents the polling was held normally and without any major hostility.
Out of 2,468 polling centres, polls in only two centres were suspended temporarily as voting was disrupted there.
However, lackluster enthusiasm of voters to come to the polling centres to exercise their franchise, dampened the festivity of the electioneering that reigned during the last three weeks of hectic campaign.
The controversy and concern about the use of EVM for the first time in all polling centres in Dhaka city polls proved untenable as the system worked without any major objections from both the candidates and general voters.
The presence of law enforcers including BGB, Police and RAB was visible to contain polls violence. Observers from different foreign missions visited a number of centres during the polling. While visiting several polling centres, British High Commissioner Robert Dickson told the media that he was happy to observe the polling.
However, the turnover of voters was less than expected. It was expected that in presence of all political parties including two major parties - Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) - the turnover may exceed 60 to 70 per cent. But, actually the presence of voters in the polling centres was very poor.
Our correspondents while visiting the polling centers across the city, have found the absence of  polling agents of BNP mayoral and councillor candidates. The presence of opposition party leaders and activists were also not visible in and around the polling centres across the city.
However, the BNP mayoral and councillor candidates have claimed that their polling agents could not enter the polling centres under coercion of the ruling party leaders and activists. In some polling stations, they claimed that their polling agents were ousted by ruling party musclemen.
On conclusion of the balloting time, from 8:00am to 4:00pm on Saturday, two mayoral candidates of BNP have submitted separate complaints to the Election Commission (EC) for suspending results of several polling centres bringing charges of vote rigging
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina cast her vote at Dhaka City College at around 8:00am. She expressed her optimism about AL candidate's victory in Dhaka city polls while briefing journalists.
The Prime Minister questioned EC's permission of allowing local employees of foreign missions to become election observers.
The mayoral candidates of the ruling Awami League and chiefs of AL election operation committees rejected their allegations and claimed that the election was free and fair.
US Ambassador Earl Miller visited two polling centres in Rampura Ekramunnesa High School and Shaheed Monu Miah Govt High School in Tejgaon.
While talking to the Daily Observer, voters have expressed their satisfaction over the new EVM introduced in both city polls for the first time.
Most voters of different polling stations includes Azimpur, Lalbagh, Narinda, Bangshal, Kadamtoli and Dhanmondi area, said that the new method has ensured more comfort in casting ballots than the previous system.
Akhi Khatun, 37, a housewife, who came to the polling station of West End High School in Lalbagh, said that she found the new method of voting more comfortable and easy than before.
Male voters queue up in a polling to cast vote at a polling centre in Dhaka city polls on Saturday. 	PHOTO: PID

Male voters queue up in a polling to cast vote at a polling centre in Dhaka city polls on Saturday. PHOTO: PID

"I highly appreciate this method.  I don't need to go through different processes like standing for hours on the queue, collecting papers, circling the candidate symbols so many jobs we were asked to do, but this EVM system takes only 30 seconds," she said.
Ferdous Ara, a 72 years old, elderly woman from Rishikesh Das Lane to cast vote in Shishu Bidyalay polling station, with the help of her elder son, Shamim Ahemd, said despite her inability to move feels like casting her vote using the new technique.
"My mother is sick, but still we have brought her to exercise her voting rights," he said.
Our correspondents visiting several polling stations under DSCC found that in most polling centres voters were able to cast their votes peacefully. But there were a few incidents where BNP agents were thrown out of the polling stations.
Md Ismail Mia, Presiding Officer at the centre 676 at Millat High School under Ward No 35 in DSCC, said voters cast their votes in a peaceful environment.
"A particular group of people including housemaids, tea stall owners and rickshaw pullers faced complexity using EVM to cast their votes," he said.
Asked about the percentage of voters' presence, Presiding Officer Soumitra Sarder of Azimpur Girls High School and College, said out of 1,535 voters, some 326 voters were cast till 3:00 pm.
However, the overall women voters' participation was very low this year, he said.
However, Redwanur Rahman, Presiding Officer of Narinda Shishu Biddaloy said the about 143 voters cast their votes until 1:00 pm.
He also claimed that the whole election environment was peaceful and gradually the numbers of voters increased," he said. 
At Gopibagh and Kamalapur area, some councillor candidates were seen transporting voters from their homes to the polling centres. They have also greeted the voters at the polling centres.
After giving vote along with his wife, Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University Prof Md Akhtaruzzaman said vote casting on the campus took place without any hitch.
Votes were taken in total four voting centres in the Dhaka University area under the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC). The centers were Annex building, University Laboratory School and College Center, Udayan Higher Secondary School and Curzon Hall centres.
While taking snaps from outside the polling centre at Tikatuli, Poriborton.com photojournalist Osman Goni was attacked by miscreants.
At least 8 cocktails were exploded at Bakshibazar Govt Primary School centre in a clash between the AL-BNP men.
At Sadek Khan Road of Rayerbazar area, a journalist of online portal Mostafizur Rahman Sumon came under miscreants attach and he was critically hurt. He was taken to the Sikdar Medical College Hospital for treatment. While collecting polls infos, PBA correspondent Jisad Iqbal came under attack and hurt at Jan E Alam Sarker High School centre.
Journalists were barred from entering polling stations at Dhaka Ideal School and College in Uttar Badda and Adarsha High School in Mirpur.
While visiting Banani Bidya Niketon School and College on Saturday, Inspector General of Police Mohammad Javed Patwary called upon his officials to take necessary actions regarding the incident without delay.
Benazir Ahmed Director General of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) visited DMCH to see injured journalist Sumon and assured him of bring the attackers to book after identifying them from CCTV footages.
Taposh wins landslide victory, Atiq leading

Taposh wins landslide victory, Atiq leading











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