Voting for the Dhaka-17 by-elections began this morning amid a thin presence of voters at all centres.

Photo: Prabir Das

While visiting the Bhasantek Government Primary School, Paschim Bhasantek Government Primary School, Bangladesh Muktijuddha High School, Government Homeopathic Medical College, Dhaka Modern Ideal School, and Manarat Dhaka International School and College polling centres, no queue was seen and only a few voters voted at the above-mentioned centres.

Photo: Rashed Shumon

In the four centres at Government Homeopathic Medical College, 105 voters, out of 7,418 voters, cast their votes till 9:00am.

Only 61 votes were cast till 9:30am at the centre in Manarat Dhaka International School and College, which has four polling centres.

There are a total of 7,513 voters under three of the centres, but the presiding officer of the fourth did not give the number of voters under the centre. Al Mohaimin Khan also refused to divulge the number of votes cast, and told The Daily Star that providing information to the media after just one and a half hours of voting was not important.

Photo: Rashed Shumon

Meanwhile, there were large numbers of Awami League supporters and members of law enforcement agencies, including Rab and BGB, in front of the polling centres visited by our correspondents.

AL suppoters hoped that the turnout would increase later in the day.

Read more

Dhaka-17 by-polls underway

The by-polls of Dhaka-17 began at 8:00am and will continue till 4:00pm without any break.

The seat became vacant after the death of film actor and member of parliament Akbar Hossain Pathan Farooque.