‘We are Awami League’

AL men thronging outside polling centres and at every step from a polling centre's gate to the entrance of polling booths -- was the scenario across different polling centres in Dhaka-7 and 10 constituencies yesterday.

Visiting six centres in Dhaka-7, no voter queue was seen outside, even though a total of 3,43,089 voters were slated to vote at 125 polling centres of the constituency.

At Azimpur Gov't Girls School and College, polling agents of "boat" were present at all seven booths, while polling agents of four other candidates were absent.

Only one polling agent of "Ektara" symbol was present at one booth.

A similar situation was found at Agrani School and College, Haji Selim University College, and Pogose Laboratory School.

Meanwhile, while entering New Model Degree College in Dhaka-10 around 3:00pm, this correspondent and a photojournalist were threatened by Awami League activists.

At that time, a woman wearing a "boat" badge said, "You can't enter the centre and the booths."

When the newspaper wanted to know her identity, she said, "We are Awami League."

Around 50 youths, most wearing a "boat" badge, were heard shouting at the centre's third floor. A couple of minutes later, they came out of the building and left, and the four law enforcers present at the scene remained unbothered the entire time.

When asked why these youths were at the centre, one of the law enforcers said, "We can't do anything. You better get out of here soon."

However, Md Hasan Mahbub, presiding officer of the centre, claimed the environment was good there.