EC secretary asks to wait ‘until the end’ to know voter turnout

CEC Nasir says results require time for referendum and postal ballots

EC Secretary Akhtar Ahmed has asked to wait “until the end” to know the voter turnout in the national election.

He began announcing the “partial results” of the polls in different constituencies across Bangladesh around 10:30pm on Thursday.

About 20 minutes after the results were announced, he made the remarks in response to journalists’ questions about voter turnout.

He said, “The percentage of votes will be announced after counting in all 299 seats. We will have to wait until then.”

Before the announcement of the results, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin said it takes time to finalise the results as it includes the referendum and postal ballot. However, there is no “opportunity for irregularities”.

A total of 2,028 candidates are contesting in the 299 parliamentary seats nationwide.

At a briefing at 4:15pm, Akhtar said: “47.91 percent of votes were cast in 36,031 centres between 7:30am and 2:00pm.”

Before the election, the EC had said it would hold central briefings for journalists every two hours. However, after voting began at 7:30am, Akhtar attended the first briefing at 1:15pm.

At that time, he said 32.88 percent of votes had been cast in 32,789 centres by 12 noon.