Voter turnout 32.88% in first half of polls: EC secy

The voter turnout across the country was 32.88 per cent by 12:00 pm on Thursday, during the first half of the ongoing nine-hour parliamentary elections and referendum, according to the Election Commission (EC).

“We’ve gleaned the data from 32,789 out of 42,651 polling centres. According to the data, the voter turnout is 32.88 per cent,” said EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed while briefing reporters at 1:10pm in the city’s Nirbachan Bhaban.

The balloting began at 7:30am and will continue uninterrupted till 4:30pm. The balloting is being held in 299 out of 300 parliamentary constituencies across the country amid a peaceful environment.

The EC Secretary said no polling centre has had its voting postponed or suspended anywhere in the country as of the latest update.

“According to the information available to us so far, voting has not been postponed at any polling centre. Balloting is continuing in all polling centres,” he said adding the balloting continued now in all the polling centres across the country.

Referring to reports of isolated incidents in some places, the EC senior secretary said the situations were brought under control promptly.

“There were some isolated incidents in a few places. But those are now under control. The local administration has taken necessary measures immediately. There is no alarming situation anywhere at this time,” he added.

The balloting for both referendum and national election is being held simultaneously in all the constituencies except Sherpur-3 where the voting was postponed following the death of Jamaat’s contesting candidate in the parliamentary seat.

Akhtar Ahmed also said an assistant presiding officer unfortunately passed away in the early hours of Thursday ahead of the balloting in Mymensingh and a replacement officer was immediately made.

“So, the voting process was not disrupted at that polling station,” he added.

Source: UNB