Cumilla city polls peaceful, saw around 60% turnout: CEC

Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal today said the Cumilla City Corporation election was peaceful and estimated that about 60 percent votes were cast.

While talking to reporters after the election at the EC office in the capital, the CEC also said a few elderly people faced some problems while casting their votes using the electronic voting machine (EVM) but the general consensus was that voting through EVM went well.

Kazi Habibul Awal also said heavy rainfall slowed down turnout of voters.

Apart from CCC polls, elections at five municipalities and 132 union parishads were also peaceful.

The CEC further said they were cautious about the transparency of the election but media and local election observers got to observe the election freely.

At the same briefing, Election Commissioner Md Alamgir said EVM was not slow and people who are used to it, did not face any problems, but those who were not familiar with the technology especially elderly people, needed some time to cast their votes using EVM.

Asked about Cumilla-6, Awami League MP AKM Bahauddin Bahar said the EC letter asking him to leave the election area was "out of its jurisdiction."

CEC Habibul Awal said that "We have discussed this a lot and now the election is over and this issued has thus passed and I will not make any further comments."