The first phase of upazila parishad elections to 78 upazilas has ended.

Voting began across all the designated upazilas at 8:00am and continued without a break until 4:00pm. After end to voting, counting began.

The Daily Star received some reports of low voter turnout and very few incidents of irregularities or violence throughout the day.

Most television channels have been telecasting relatively empty voting centres since this morning after voting began at 8:00am.

The battle of ballots -- boycotted by the BNP and several other parties – was held only two months after the December 30 parliamentary polls.