High turnout in Rajshahi, voting peaceful

With high turnout, voting in all the six constituencies in Rajshahi passed off peacefully yesterday, barring some stray incidents and reports of a few fake votes.
Voters started to form long queues at the poling centres even before they opened at 8:00am. Many centres saw a turnout of average 35 percent by 11:00am, which rose to as high as 65 percent by 2:00pm.
The police arrested two BNP adherents for intimidating voters near Sujanagar centre in Rajshahi-2.
A polling officer of Bianabona centre at Deopara in Rajshahi-1 constituency was withdrawn after the polling agents complained that he was a BNP man and appointed on political consideration. The complaint led to tension, resulting in suspension of voting for about 15 minutes.
At Sonadighi Government Primary School centre at Rajshahi-1, the polling agents of Awami League complained that voters were being allowed to enter the polling centre with leaflets containing the election symbol and picture of BNP nominee.
At Kakonhat High School, grand alliance candidate Omar Faruk Chowdhury complained that four people who were visiting the centre as observers of Election Working Group belonged to BNP and they were influencing voters. Later, assistant returning officer rushed to the centre and asked the four observers to leave it.
At Kasba Dimukhi High School of Rajshahi-3, Razia Begum, a voter, complained that she could not cast her vote as the vote had already been cast by someone else.
At Muraripur Government Primary School, two voters, Sima and Sajeda, told reporters that they did not find their names in the voter list, although they have national identity cards.
At the centre, the police held Samrat Akbar, a ward Jubo League president at Harupur, for asking voters to cast their vote wisely. He was released shortly afterwards as he made an apology, Presiding Officer Azizul Haque said.