One in every 21 votes cast in city polls invalid – third highest in only 44% turnout

One in every 21 ballots cast in Tuesday’s voting in the three city corporations was invalid, according to polls data.

The figure is staggering when put against the fact that only a shade below 44 percent voters gave their mandate amidst widespread allegations of rigging, capturing of polling centres, sporadic clashes and irregularities.

Voting was held from 8am to 4pm in Dhaka North, Dhaka South and Chittagong city corporations, in which 2,648,205 voters out of 6,029,576 cast ballots.

Total voter turnout was 43.9 percent, but 4.56 percent of those votes did not count on different grounds such as improper stamping, according to the results announced by the returning officers in the early hours of Wednesday.

It means a total of 121,003 ballots in the three city corporations were invalid.

The Awami League-backed candidates have been elected mayors in all these city corporations bagging the highest number of the votes altogether.

The BNP-endorsed candidates came second in the polls, which they boycotted halfway through the ballot, alleging widespread rigging and irregularities by the ruling party supporters.

The elections to the civic bodies had the dubious distinction of having cancelled votes as the third highest ballots.

There were 2,345,374 voters in Dhaka North, which had 1093 voting centres.

But, only 874,058 cast their votes, or 37.3 percent of the total available ballots – the lowest turnout compared with the other two, results showed.

Surprisingly, 33,582 votes were cancelled here.

The lowest turnout aside, Dhaka North also saw less violence, rigging or capture of polling centres.

In Dhaka South, there were 1,870,753 voters and 889 polling stations. Voting in three centres was suspended due to trouble and irregularities.

Results from 886 centres showed that only 905,484 votes were cast, which is 48.57 percent of the total turnout.

As many 40,130 votes were declared invalid.

The Election Commission announced results from 719 centres in Chittagong City showed that only 868,663 out of 1,813,449 votes were cast, which is 47.9 percent of the total.

Here, 47,292 votes were cancelled.

The port city also saw most of the vote rigging and capture of booths.

EC Secretariat’s Deputy Secretary Shamsul Alam told bdnews24.com: “In most cases, votes are declared invalid because of the voters’ ignorance.”

Turnout rose in Dhaka but declined in Chittagong compared with the previous elections.

According to officials, 34.44 percent voters had exercised their rights in the elections to undivided Dhaka City Corporation on Apr 25, 2002.

They said 54.5 percent of Chittagong City voters cast ballots in the election held on Jun 17, 2010.

EC Secretary Md Sirajul Islam told bdnews24.com that nearly 44 percent votes were cast for mayors.

“It’s not a case of us being happy or unhappy about it. We only created the environment (for voting), but it is for the voters and election officials to judge,” he said.