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Second round of municipal elections held peacefully Municipality Elections
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Second round of municipal elections held peacefully

Bangladesh Live News | @banglalivenews | 16 Jan 2021, 07:30 pm

Dhaka, January 16: The second round of municipal elections has been completed amid widespread voter turnout, exclusion and allegations of coercion, ignoring the risks of winter and corona. Voting runs from 8am to 4pm on Saturday (January 16). The election ended in a generally peaceful atmosphere, despite allegations of violence, evictions of voters and agents in several places.

Voting will officially ended at 4 p.m., but in some places voting will continue until the voter line ends.

According to Election Commission sources, the second phase was to be held in 61 municipalities. However, voting was postponed due to the death of a candidate of Syedpur Municipality in Nilphamari. In 56 out of 60 municipalities, mayoral elections were held.

Awami League candidates have won uncontested before the polls in four municipalities in Narayanganj's Tarab, Sirajganj's Kazipur, Pabna's Bhangura and Pirojpur. So in the remaining 52 votes were cast for the post of mayor.

Municipal elections in Kuliyarchar, Kishoreganj: The schedule for the second phase of voting was announced on December 2. EVMs were used in 29 municipalities and paper ballots in the remaining 31 municipalities. In this phase, 211 candidates contested for the post of mayor, 2,232 for the post of general councilor and 724 for the post of reserved councilor.

Extensive voter turnout has been seen in most places: this time there are Awami League candidates in all the municipalities. Rebel candidates of the party are also in the field in many municipalities. Apart from the two major parties, candidates from Jatiya Party, Islami Andolan, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-Jasad, Liberal Democratic Party-LDP, Nationalist Democratic Movement-NDM and National People's Party-NPP also contested the elections.

Voting takes place in a festive atmosphere at the EVM, with few exceptions.

Awami League supporters in Dhanbari in Tangail, Gopalganj in Natore, Mongla in Bagerhat, Khagrachhari and Pabna have been accused of expelling voters with fingerprints, snatching ballots and sealing boats, beating BNP agents and expelling them from the center.

Meanwhile, election officials have claimed that 45 to 50 percent of the votes were cast in most areas even in winter.