Chittagong, Jun 17 (bdnews24.com) —The country's first ever electronic voting system was launched at Ward 21 in Chittagong at the Chittagong City Corporation elections.
A total of 25,230 voters of ward 21 in the Jamalkhan area -12,879 male and 12,351 female — will have the privilege of being the first ever voters in Bangladesh to cast their votes through an electronic system; no longer casting their votes to choose their representatives through ballot papers but by pressing buttons on Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).
A total of 14 presiding officers, 79 assistants and 158 polling officers are engaged in the ward.
Votes are being collected through the conventional system in other wards.
A large number of voters, mostly women, were seen waiting in long queues in Ward 21.
Assistant returning officer Dulal Talukder told bdnews24.com that 79 EVMs have been installed for the 79 booths in the 14 voting centres in the ward.
In total the EC had received 130 EVMs from BUET, of which 37 were set aside for the trial and training of EC staff.
The names and symbols of the candidates have been installed in the remaining 93 EVMs, of which 79 have been set in the booths and remaining 14 kept on standby, he added.
BUET professor SM Lutful Kabir was seen inspecting the e-voting at the ward.
Moslem Uddin, a voter who had come to cast his vote at the Dr Khastagir Government High School, told bdnews24.com, "at last it seems that Bangladesh has entered a digital era. I also participated in the trial of the new system. I'm very happy to be a part of this."
Dipu Sarker, another voter, told bdnews24.com after casting his vote through the EVM, that it was "very easy. I didn't join the trial. But there was no problems as the polling officers were very helpful."
Voters also need less time in this system, Dipu added.
Presiding officer of the centre, Iftekharul Islam said the voter turnout has been very high and that voters were seen excited about the new vote casting system.
After her inspection of the Khastagir Government Girls' High School polling centre at around 9 am, returning officer Jasmine Tuli told reporters that the polls were being held in a peaceful manner and that there had been no news of violence from anywhere.
Earlier, Tuli had told bdnews24.com that the Election Commission had taken all possible measures to hold the election in a free and fair manner.
Trials for the new voting system were held on June 11 and 12.
Some 20,000 law-enforcers have been deployed across the port city, especially around the polling centres where voters have queued up to cast their votes.
Eight candidates are running for the mayor's office.
Another 249 candidates are contesting for the posts of ward councilor, and 59 for councillor posts reserved for women, in 41 wards of the city.
The mayoral candidates are ruling Awami League-backed ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, main opposition BNP-backed M Manzur Alam, Jatiya Party-backed Solaiman Alam Sheth, and independent candidates Syed Sajjad Joha, Mohammad Ibrahim, Zane Alam, Mofazzal Hossain Bhuiyan and Rafiqul Alam.
Sheth still has his name on the ballots even after the party chief HM Ershad had extended his support to Mohiuddin as he did not have time to withdraw his nomination paper.
All kinds of election campaign activities were stopped after June 15, in line with the election rules.
Chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda warned that no irregularities would be tolerated in the polls, adding that if there was trouble in any polling centre, voting would be suspended there instantly.
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