Distance fails to stop them from voting
Voters in the district yesterday exercised their right to franchise peacefully in an election that was held without any intimidation or noticeable monetary influence.
A festive mood was seen as voters, both male and female, started arriving the centres in large numbers from the morning.
There was not any report of polls rigging in the district except two attempted forged voting at Raniganj Bazaar in Sadar upazila.
Despite the authorities claim of setting up polling centres at nearest possible places for every village, a large number of voters, especially in the bordering belt of the northern districts including Dinajpur, had to cover long distances to exercise their democratic right to choose the 'right' candidate.
However, distance did not deter many voters like Shapla Roy of Tetra union, a remote bordering area of Bochaganj upazila under Dinajpur-2 constituency, who walked four kilometres to cast her first vote in life.
There are many others who travelled greater distances to ensure that they exercised their right to franchise for electing a political government in the long waited December 29 election, thanks to the congenial atmosphere for a free and fair election.
During this correspondent's visit to different polling centres in the district including Birganj and Kaharole in Dinajpur-1, Biral and Bochaganj in Dinajpur-2 and Dinajpur-3 constituencies, voters expressed satisfaction about the election atmosphere.
Many of them, however, complained of the trouble to cover long distances to reach polling centres at several kilometres distances.
As officials set up polling centres without assessing the ground realities, people of bordering villages including Satoil and Anwara in Bochaganj had to cover four to six kilometres to reach the polling centre, said Hasanuzzaman, a farmer in the area.
Although there is a polling centre near their villages, inhabitants of the area had to cast their vote at faraway Tetra polling centre, he said.
Braving such troubles, 85 per cent voters of the district cast their votes while women outnumbered their male counterparts in most polling centres, sources said.
However, a few voters alleged that they could not cast their votes as their ID number and particulars did not match with the voter list.
Of the 17,66,220 voters in the district, 8,92,660 are women, district election office sources said.
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