Dhaka, Ctg city polls begin

Voting began in Dhaka and Chittagong city corporations this morning amid fear of violence.

Starting from 8:00am, the voting will continue till 4:00pm without any break in between.

It is public holiday in the three corporations -- Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Chittagong City Corporation (CCC).

Prime Minister Shiekh Hasian cast her vote at Dhaka City College in Dhanmondi around 8:15am.

A total of 48 aspirants are running for mayor of DSCC, DNCC and CCC while 249 for 45 reserved seats and 891 for 134 general councillor posts in the corporations.

The ruling Awami League has picked Annisul Huq for DNCC, Sayeed Khokon for DSCC and AJM Nasir Uddin for CCC while the BNP's favourites are Tabith Awal for DNCC, Mirza Abbas for DSCC and Manjur Alam for CCC.

While visiting Tejgaon Government Boys High School polls centre, agents of BNP-backed mayoral candidate for Dhaka North City Corporation alleged that they were barred to enter the polling centre before the polls started in the morning.

There are 5,892 booths in 1,093 polling centres of DSCC, while DNCC has 889 polling centres with 4,746 booths. In CCC, the number of booths is 4,906.

A total of 60.29 lakh voters will elect three mayors and 179 councillors through the polls.

A 24-hour ban on all types of vehicular movement except for rickshaws and rickshaw-vans has been imposed in the three city corporations that have gone to the polls. The ban became effective from 12:01am today.

In a gazette notification on Saturday, the home ministry also restricted the movement of launch and speedboat in the city corporation areas during the time.

Security has been beefed up in the city corporation areas.  Some 78,730 law enforcers from police, Rapid Action Battalion, Border Guard Bangladesh, Ansar-VDP and Coast Guard have been deployed in the three city corporations.