AL men crowd polling centres

There was a large  presence of  Awami League supporters inside and outside some polling centres in the first four hours of voting in the Dhaka-6 constituency yesterday.

This correspondent visited at least six centres, between 9:30am and noon. At the entrance of every centre, a huge number of ruling party supporters and agents were seen moving around.

There were two centres -- male and female -- at Kabi Nazrul Government College. In the female centre, the total number of voters was 2,820 and in the male centres, the number of voters was 4,094.

During a visit to the female centre around 11:40am, this correspondent found at least dozens of males moving around with badges of boat candidate on their necks.

The group leader identified himself as Miraz Mohammad Mahi, an aspirant for the president post of ward-42 AL unit.

When asked why he was inside a female centre, Mahi couldn't come up with a satisfactory answer.

He and one of his associates were seen talking to the centre's presiding officer Md Rokonuzzaman.

When asked, Rokonuzzaman said they were "just inquiring if everything was okay".

Only 82 votes were cast at the centre till 11:30am.

"Generally, women come to vote after lunch.  We are expecting a larger percentage in the afternoon," he said.

When this correspondent was leaving the centre after noon, no lines of voters were observed. However, the number of votes rose to 445 within some hours, as told by the presiding officer over a phone call in the early evening.

In both male and female centres, polling agents of only two candidates: Awami League and Jatiyo Party (Manju), were seen.

Meanwhile, at Silver Dale Preparatory and Girls High School in Wari, 40 out of 3,420 votes were cast till 10:30am, according to presiding officer Prokash Chandra Sarker.

Later, he confirmed a total of 838 voters had voted by 4:00pm.