A very low turnout of voters marked the parliamentary byelection in Meherpur-1 constituency held yesterday as the BNP-led opposition alliance observed a half-day hartal across the region.

No untoward incident took place al any of the 63 polling centres of the constituency during the elections held under tight security.

However, the opposition boycott of the polls turned the election into a straight fight between the ruling Awami League's official candidate Prof. Abdul Mannan and a former president of the district AL Mohammad Hisabuddin.

As polling went on. both sides said it was a free and fair

atmosphere.

The opposition alliance of Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Jatiya Party (Ershad). Jamaat-e-Islami and Islam! Oikkya Jote boycotted the polls to press its four-point demands including resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Mohammad Abu Hena. Besides, the JP led by Anwar Hossain Moniu also stayed away from the polls as it awaited a court verdict on its election symbol.

However, Election Commissioner Mushtaq Ahmed Chowdhury yesterday found the election as "a lifeless one".

“The election was peaceful. But it nol a competitive one. and therefore it was lifeless."

FromPage 1 observed the EC who. accompanied by a group of Dhaka -based reporters, visited as many as nine polling centres. "The voters turn-out would be round about 30 per cent."

The voters, even the election agents of the candidates at different polling centres, expressed the same view. "People lost traditional enthusiasm about elections due to the fact that the opposition parties have boycotted the polls." said Shakhawat Hossain, a polling agent of Prof. Mannan at the Amjhupi Primary School centre. Hazrat Ali, polling agent of Hisabuddin. nodded his approval in front of the Election Commissioner.

The polling agents complained that names of 264 voters of the area were not printed in the official voters list. "So far. one of the 264 voters came to cast his vote. But we had to refuse him as the list does not contain his name." said one of the agents to the Election Commissioner.

In the afternoon, both the Deputy Commissioner of Menerpur Kamrul Islam, who was also the Returning Officer for the by-election, and the Superintendent of Police Jahangir Hossain predicted that the voters turnout would be a little

more than 30 per cent. None of them was. however, ready to admit that the low-turn out was a result of opposition boycott of the polls.

During the election, or the opposition hartal for that matter, no mechanised vehicles were seen in the streets, while most shops in the town were closed. But both the DC and the SP refused to accept that there was any hartal observed in the area.

Earlier in the morning, the Election Commissioner visited two centres - Mission Primary School centre and Dighirpar Primary School centre - between 10:45 and 1100. The voters' turnout at that time was not more than 12 per cent.

Out of the second centre, the SP was heard asking his subordinates over wireless set to make sure that the BTV men could shoot "some voters standing in a queue" in the next centre - the Hannanganj Primary School centre.

But the police officials concerned failed to implement the idea, as the number of the voters present in the centre at that time was too small to form a queue.

In the centre - Hannanganj Primary School - 400 votes out of the 4080 were cast at 11:15 in (he morning. The polling officers at one of the booths of the centre received not a single voter until 11:05 am. "More than 400 voters from Basanta-pur and Ramnagar villages are supposed to cast their votes in this booth. But none of them has so far appeared." said Mostafizur Rahman, assistant presiding officer of the centre at 11:20 am.

Then the SP became rather desperate and was successful.

When the EC team, accom-panied by EC Additional Secretary Aziz Ahmed Chowdhury and Khulna Divisional Commissioner and Meherpur DC. stopped for while at the rest house in the historic Mujib Na-

gar. the SP utilised the time to manage some voters for a queue.

Meantime, Presiding Officer of the Mujibnagar centre told reporters tnat roughly 500 votes out of the 3300 were cast until noon. As soon as the EC team had left the place and the BTV camera gone, the people in the queue dispersed.

At Sonapur Primary School centre, 250 votes out of a total of 1965 were cast till 12:45 pm. The picture was almost similar at the Ballavpur Primary School centre. Until 1:00 pm, 550 votes out of 2637 were cast at the centre.

The scene at the Anandabas Primary School centre was no different. Until 1:35 pm, 251 votes out of 2701 were cast at the polling station.

The presiding officer of the centre told reporters and the EC team that the first voter appeared at the centre an hour after the voting in the constituency was started at 8:00 in the morning.

In the Amjhupi Primary School centre, 951 votes were cast until 3:20 pm, while the total number of voters in the centre was 3186.

In the Kalach andpur Primary School centre. 253 votes out of a total of 900 were cast at the time of closing the voting at 4:00 in the afternoon.