Kushtia’s Daulatpur: 6 votes cast in 6 hrs

Only six votes were cast in the first six hours in one of the six booths for female voters at Shyampur High School centre in Daulatpur upazila of Kushtia district in the second phase of Upazila Parishad elections Tuesday.

One of the six votes was cast by an agent of a candidate, said assistant presiding officer Sohel Ahmed, who was in charge of the booth, to Prothom Alo around 2:15 pm.

Though the voting started at 8:00 am, the first vote at the booth was cast at 9:22 am, he added.

“Whenever any voter is entering the centre, we look through the window expecting that she would come to my booth. But no voter is entering my booth,” Sohel Ahmed told Prothom Alo.

The number of toal voters at the centre is 2,195, said presiding officer Sahazul Islam. “Seven people cast their votes at booth No. 1, 40 at booth No. 2, 26 at booth No. 3, 18 at booth No. 4, 38 at booth No. 5 and six at booth No. 6 until 2:00 pm. That means 135 voters cast their votes in the six hours,” he added.

Polling agent, Sadia Sultana, of only one candidate was seen at the booth No. 6. Sadia Sultana recently passed the SSC examination and is not a voter.

She just smiled but did not say anything when this correspondent asked her the reason of coming to the booth as a polling agent even though she was not a voter.

Speaking about the polling agent at booth No. 6, presiding officer Sahazul Islam told Prothom Alo, “Only one candidate’s agent has arrived here. We did not say anything much.”

He declined to speak anything else.

Two candidates have been vying for the mayoral post at Daulatpur Upazila Parishad elections. One is upazila unit Awami Jubo League resident Bulbul Ahmed Chowdhury and another is upazila unit Sramik League convener Anisur Rahman.

Bulbul Ahmed Chowdhury is the younger brother of Kushtia-1 (Daulatpur) constituency MP, Rezaul Haque Chowdhury.