Turnout swung between the two extremes

Two polling centres posted a hundred percent voter turnout each in Sunday's election, while two others recorded a 98 percent turnout, according to Election Commission's centre-wise data.

Momtajul Ulum Madrasa of Sandwip, which falls under Chattogram-3 constituency, is one of the two centres that recorded 100 percent vote cast.

The centre had 3,980 voters. However, 2,357 of the votes were cancelled during counting.

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Awami League candidate Mahfuzur Rahman took the seat with almost double the votes of his rival, who ran as a so-called independent candidate of the ruling Awami League.

The other centre that recorded 100 percent turnout is Shibpur Fazaria Fazil Madrasa of Gobindaganj in Gaibandha-4. All the centre's 2,450 votes were shown cast, although 662 votes were declared cancelled during counting, according to the EC data seen by The Daily Star.

AL pick Md Abul Kalam Azad won this seat with an overwhelming majority (201,171 votes). His closest contender, a Jatiyo Party candidate, bagged only 4,000 votes.

• 27 centres posted 0% turnout 
• 6 centres posted 95% turnout
• 5 centres recorded 94% turnout

The average turnout in these two seats were shown 36.21 percent and 54.13 percent respectively.

Votes are declared cancelled mainly when the stamping is not clearly marked on a single symbol.

Some other centres reported extremely high turnout.

Tetaigaon Rashid Uddin High School of Kamalganj upazila at Moulvibazar-4 recorded a 98.12 percent turnout. Of the centre's 4,206 registered voters, 4,127 were shown to have voted.

Similarly, Mazaharul Ulum Gausia Fazil Degree Madrasa (north building) women's voting centre posted a 98 percent turnout. This polling centre in Fatikchhari under Chattogram-2 constituency had 4,094 registered voters, and 4,015 of them were shown to have exercised their voting rights.

Here, too, a significant number of votes -- 1,578 -- were cancelled.

Six centres recorded about 95 percent turnout. They are Mirganj Government Primary School of Mirganj union in Sherpur-2, Chalitadanga Begum Bashirunnessa Bahumukhi High School of Chalitadanga union in Sirajganj-1, Moshakhali Dadosh Palli Secondary School of Moshakhali union in Magura-2, Tarapasha High School and College in Moulvibazar-3 and Kodalia Government Primary School in Mymensingh-2, according to EC data.

Five centres in Gopalganj-2, Lalmonirhat–2, Sirajganj-2, Bagerhat-1 and Gopalganj-3 posted about 94 percent turnout each.

One hundred centres recorded over 90 percent voter turnouts. Twenty-eight of these centres are in Gopalganj-3, from where Sheikh Hasina ran and won. Another 17 centres are in Gopalganj-2 from where Sheikh Selim contested and won, 10 in Sherpur-1 and seven in Sirajganj-1.

In two hilly districts of Rangamati and Khagracchari, not a single vote was cast in 27 centres, where 52,241 voters were registered.

As many as 512 centres posted less than 10 percent turnout. These centres had 41,908 voters.

Most of these centres are in Kurigram-2, Cox's Bazar-1, Gazipur-1, Gazipur-2, Chattogram-10, Chattogram-5, Chattogram-3, Chattogram-11, Chapainawabganj-3, Dhaka-10, Dhaka-11, Dhaka-15, Dhaka-16, Dhaka-17, Dhaka-18, Dhaka-19, Dhaka-2, Dhaka-8, Narayanganj-4, Bogura-6, Bogura-7, Moulvibazar-3, Sylhet-1 and Sylhet-5.

Md Ashraf Hossain, a systems manager at the EC, said the 100 percent turnout in two centres was likely the result of human error on the part of the presiding officers.

Each centre gets as many ballots as the number of voters, he said, adding, "The presiding officers in these two cases took the slips of the ballots that were not cast and then declared them as cancelled by mistake. Afterwards, they declared the total ballots as the total vote cast."