Despite a bomb threat by an unknown telephone caller to the Control Room set up in Home Office, voting came to a peaceful formal end at 4pm in Bangladesh, but people were queuing up in the polling centers for more couple of hours.
According to an unofficial estimation, Election Commissioner Sohul Hussain said to the press that up to 60 percent of voters cast their votes in four City Corporations and nine Municipalities.
Election Officials hoped that first unofficial result could be declared at the early hours of August 5, 2008. But no reaction has come out from the politicians. It is mentionable that people were enthusiastic about the poll.
Voting began in four City Corporations and nine Municipalities from 8 am of August 4, 2008, and continued uninterruptedly up to 4 pm. This was first set of polls of the Election Commission under the present military backed caretaker government which has been held under the state of emergency that is first ever in Bangladesh.
The total numbers of candidates for Mayor and Councilor seats in the City Corporation elections are 992. The numbers of candidates in nine Municipalities are 608. The number of registered voters in the electoral areas is over 1.3 million.
Early reports of the day from polling centers on the electoral areas painted confusion among voters and election officials over voter identification, though candidates voiced satisfaction with the election environment.
A number of voters in the Sylhet City Corporation said they were unable to cast their votes on production of their National ID cards, as confusion arose when they were asked to show a voter serial number as well. Similar problems have arisen in Khulna, Barishal and Rajshahi, the pressmen covering election said.
Meanwhile Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) members detained 12 people from different polling centers in Barishal on charges of violating the election code of conduct. The arrest was confirmed by RAB officials on duty at the City.
However one Deputy Secretary, who is the in-charge of Home Ministry control room, confirmed to the press that at 12:45 pm of Bangladesh standard time one phone caller threatened that a simultaneous bomb attack will take place in all cities where election is going on. Soon after the phone call, administration went for an alert and the election has been completed in a peaceful manner.
Now all officers concern are passing a busy time for counting votes and pressmen are engaged in collecting information from the Election Commission Secretariat (ECS). ECS officials said that they have constant communication with the officers working in field level.
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