Re-polling in 4 centres today

Re-election in four polling centres of Saidpur municipality under the district today will decide the final result of the mayoral contest in the municipality with 32 centres.

Four councillors will also be elected, based on the votes there.

Amid widespread violence during the December 30 elections, the Election Commission suspended polls in four centres of the municipality.

The centres, Free Amin Government Primary School, Golahat Railway Colony Government Primary School, Muslim High School and Nayatola Government Primary School have a total of 10,418 voters in ward No-1, 2 and 3 where most of the residents are Urdu speaking people.

To foil the attempt to occupy polling centres, law enforcers charged batons and fired 30 rounds of rubber bullets and dispersed unruly supporters of two mayor candidates from Awami League (AL) and BNP.

The incident left 15 people injured.

Against the backdrop, Urdu speaking voters, a linguistic minority group, are worried about the polls atmosphere today.

"If I see any chance of violence I won't go to cast vote," said Moinuddin, 45, an Urdu speaking voter of Golahat Railway Colony Government Primary School centre.

On December 30, election was held peacefully in 28 of the 32 centres in Saidpur municipality where total 49,632 votes were cast out of a total 81371, said sources in the returning officer's office at Saidpur.

BNP candidate Amjad Hossen Sarker with symbol sheaf of paddy secured 25,823 votes and his nearest rival AL backed Sawkat Hossen Khokon with symbol boat got 19,959 votes. Two other candidates lagged much behind.

The polls in the four centres will decide the final results today.