Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda said the elections to the two Dhaka city corporations were good and the commission did not receive any major complaint from anyone.

The CEC said this while briefing reporters after a meeting at the Election Commission at Agargaon in the capital yesterday evening.

“The elections were good, but I do not know about percentage of the vote cast as I did not get the total result yet. I expect this will be below 30 percent,” he said.

“Many complained that BNP agents were driven out of the polling centres. But we didn't receive any such complaint,” he added.

“We watched on television that most of the voters felt

comfortable with the EVM,” he said. Earlier in the day, the fingerprints of the CEC did not match at an electronic voting machine (EVM) when he tried to cast his vote at a polling booth in IES School and College centre in Uttara at around 11am.

After his fingerprints had a mismatch, the CEC had to cast his vote using his National Identification (NID) card at the polling centre.

The assistant presiding officer of the polling centre, Siddiqa Bulbul, told reporters that both of Huda’s thumbs were pressed on the EVM machine, but the fingerprints did not match.

“He has cast his vote using his NID card,” she said.

Talking to reporters after casting his vote, Huda said voters can cast their votes in alternative ways if anyone’s fingerprint does not match in the EVM machine.

Meanwhile, Election Commissioner Mahbub Talukdar said when he went to vote at Ispahani Girls High School centre in Moghbazaar around 11:30am, journalists told him that agents from the political opposition were present in the morning. But they were later forced out from the centre. There has been no scope to crosscheck the claim, the commissioner said.

“I have visited a total of 12 centers from 10:00 am in the morning up until 2 pm. I didn’t find any polling agent from any opposition and there were only the agents from the ruling party. From morning till 2.00pm, an estimated 10 percent of the votes were cast,” he said.

He said that because of the use of EVM, there are two benefits. No center can now have more than 100 percent vote and there is no scope to cast votes the night before, he said.

“The voting process was very peaceful. Apart from some sporadic incidents and clashes, there were no incidents of serious clashes or anomalies. I don’t know the reason behind the absence of other parties,” he added.

Meanwhile, a delegation from Islami Andolon Bangladesh (IAB) met the CEC at his office and asked for his resignation over anomalies during polls.

IK