By-polls may generate less voter interest as term nearly over: Arafat

Awami League candidate Mohammad Arafat feels that the Dhaka-17 by-election may generate less voter interest as the term is nearly over. He said they felt that motivating the voters was a big challenge. However, he believes that the people coming to vote, will cast their vote in favour of the boat symbol.

Mohammad A Arafat was speaking after casting his vote at 11:15am at a centre of the Gulshan Model School and College in the capital. This college has a total of five polling centres.

Arafat said that voters have a disinterest in election where there is only five or six months left of the term. He said, "We are trying to inspire the people, trying to generate interest. We hope to get a significant number of votes."

The Awami League candidate went on to say, "We are repeatedly urging the people, vote, vote, vote. We are not telling them to vote for the boat even. After all, we know that if people come to vote, they will vote for the boat. There are boat votes right, left and centre, all over. Our effort is to bring people to cast their votes."       

Speaking about the low voter turnout, Mohammad A Arafat said, "I went around certain areas in the morning and observed the situation. It was raining in the morning and so the voter turnout was a bit low at the time. You may have seen the centres in the Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara areas. The voters in these areas, generally speaking, wake up a bit late and then go to cast their votes. But many voters came to vote in the Kalachanpur and Norda areas. Many came in Bhasantek and Korail. Till now the election environment seems peaceful."

When asked about an idea on how many votes had been cast, he said, "From the lines, it looks like a good number of voters are coming, but I can't give you any exact numbers."

He expressed his confidence in winning the election, saying, "The boat will win. There is no alternative to this in Bangladesh."

In reply to why polling agents of other candidates were not present, Mohammad A Arafat said, "There are 124 centres here and I think 600 booths. That will require a minimum of 600 agents. One agent would have to stay in every booth the entire day and they would have to be changed too. So that would require a minimum 1200 agents. This may not be possible if there is a lack of organisational strength. I cannot comment on that. But Awami League has that organisational strength."