Common people appreciate general poll saying extraordinary

The people of Bangladesh men and women, young and old alike cast their votes with unprecedented enthusiasm in the 9th parliament polls held across the country peacefully except some stray incidents of disturbance on Monday.

The polling took place in 299 of the 300 Jatiya Sangsad seats and the turnout was heaviest since independence in 1971. A total of 1,555 candidates from 39 political parties including Awami League, BNP, Jatiya Party, Jamaat, Workers Party, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Liberal Democratic Party and Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh and independents contested the polls. This year's election, delayed by two years due to emergency rule imposed in the wake of politics of confrontation and anarchy, was exceptional one as it was almost completely peaceful and spontaneous. Over 1.6 crore young voters, who were supposed to vote for the first time this year, gave a new dimension to the election.

The voting began at 8am and continued till 4 pm without any break.

However, those entering the polling centre compounds by 4pm would be allowed to cast their votes. A total of 8,10,58,698 people were supposed to cast their votes in favour of their respective candidates amid foolproof security cover put up by military and paramilitary troops, police, and Ansar-VDP personnel.

President Iajuddin Ahmed, Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda, Awami League President Sheikh Hasina and BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia cast their votes at their respective centres and expressed their satisfaction over holding of peaceful voting.

In capital Dhaka while TBT Correspondents in groups were visiting different polling centres for covering election news, found hundreds of thousands of people including male, female and youths standing in long queues in the polling centres from 7:30 in the morning and polling started at 8.00 am amid comparatively better weather today. The numbers of voters were seen gradually increasing with time, and the election officials as well as representatives of contestants experienced larger voter turnouts till 4 pm.

"I have never seen such a fair and transparent atmosphere of holding parliamentary poll in my life except this one. I came to cast my vote despite my old age complications," eighty years old Alhaj Sheikh Nurul Islam at Santibagh in Malibagh told The Bangladesh Today in an interview yesterday.

Nurul Islam, a retired employee of the Education Directorate, said "Like me many elderly people were seen to cast their votes with eagerness. I have really enjoyed casting vote this year."

Sub-Inspector Mohammad Manik Mia who was on duty in Government Science College at Santibagh, said, "I discharged my duties in many parliamentary elections in the past. But this election is held very fairly without any violence, vote rigging, objection of any kind and intimidation."

Meanwhile, the complicated system introduced by the EC contributed to delay in the process of casting votes and completing other procedures on the part of the voters and Presiding Officers.

A Presiding Officer at Mirpur -1 poll centre said "Last moment update in the voter serial number due to death of many voters contributed to delay in finding serial number and casting votes by voters. Examination of similarity between voters and their photograph kept in the list provided to us by the commission is taking more time. Besides, signatures of voters and the assistant presiding officers both required to fulfill the procedure of vote casting is another reason for causing delay."