Voting in Khulna City Corporation (KCC) and Barishal City Corporation (BCC) elections ended on Monday afternoon.
Ballot casting began at 8:00am and continued until 4:00pm at a stretch
Voters were seen standing in long queues at polling centres to cast their votes using electronic voting machines (EVM). The city corporation elections were being monitored by the Election Commission from Dhaka through CCTV cameras.
In the Khulna city corporation election, five candidates are vying for the mayoral post, 136 for councillors in 29 general wards, and 30 for reserved seats.
Two councillors for wards 13 and 24 were elected unopposed earlier.
Awami League-backed candidate Talukder Abdul Khaleque cast his vote at Pioneer Secondary Girls School centre on the city’s South Central Road around 9:10am.
After voting, the mayoral candidate said the election is being held in a free, fair manner.
Eleven platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) were carrying out their duty to ensure security in the KCC election along with 8,080 members from police, Ansar and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).
There were 5,35,528 voters in the 31 wards of Khulna city and there were 1,732 polling booths under 289 polling stations.
On the other hand, seven candidates are competing for the mayoral post in the Barishal city polls.
Besides, 119 candidates are in the race for the post of general councillor and 42 candidates for the reserved councillor post.
Awami League-backed mayoral candidate Abul Khair Abdullah Khokon Serniabat cast his vote at the Government Barishal College on Kalibari road in the city.
Jatiya Party-backed candidate Iqbal Hossain Taposh exercised his franchise at Syed Abul Manan DDF Alim Madrasah on Gorostan road, Islami Andolon Bangladesh candidate Mufti Syed Muhammad Faizul Karim at Rupatoli Housing Abdur Rob Serniabat Secondary School.
Zaker Party’s candidate Md Mizanur Rahman Bachhu also cast his vote at Chhutpur Secondary School while independent candidate Md Kamrul Ahsan Rupon at Alekanda Govt Primary School in the city.
A total of 276,298 voters were able to cast their votes in 126 polling stations in 30 wards.
Ten platoons of the BGB were deployed in the BCC election along with 4,500 members of the law enforcing agencies.
