Rangpur city elections being held in festive manner: CEC

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal has said that voting is being held in a festive mood at the Rangpur City Corporation election with no reports of irregularities as of 11am Tuesday (27 December).

"Voting is taking place in a festive atmosphere. Voter turnout is satisfactory. We are monitoring through CCTV. We are using digital media technology to observe the election," he told the media at Nirbachan Bhaban in Agargaon.

Mentioning that the EC is doing the work of ensuring fairness in elections, he said, "You (journalists) will get more information later. The final word on the election can be said at the end of the day."

The vote casting started at 8:30am and will continue till 4:30pm.

Only EVMs are being used in all centres for the poll.

Kazi Habibul Awal noted that the alleged slowness of using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in voting is "relative".

"In the end, we have to see how many people left without voting through EVMs. We will evaluate that. Now there may be some delays but if a large number of voters could not vote due to this delay then we will take it seriously."

Meanwhile, Election Commissioner Anisur Rahman said around 10% of votes have been cast in the first three and a half hours, till 12pm.

Regarding the technical glitch reported at 17 polling centres,  Anisur Rahman claimed that the issue with the EVMs was solved immediately.

The election commissioner expressed satisfaction with female voter turnout in the election, further describing the overall situation of the city polls as free and fair.