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Upazila Elections

Low turnout claims do not tally with results

SHAKHAWAT LlTON and Shariful Islam
Widely reported claims of upazila election observers and also the Election Commission (EC) that voter turnout was low in Thursday's polls, are not substantiated by the result sheets disclosed so far.
The Daily Star managed to collect the data of the result sheets of 183 upazila parishads from the EC Secretariat till 5.30pm yester-
day as the commission officials were able to disclose only those till that time.
In the 183 upazilas out of a total of 475 in which elections were held, the total number of voters was 2,85,63,175 while 1,94,17,490 of them cast their votes, making the rate of turnout to be 67.98 percent, according to the data.
Observing thin presence of voters at polling stations, many observers and the EC itself estimated the turnout at
50 to 55 percent.
The presumable low turnout made the EC worried as well, prompting the chief election commissioner to say that the commission will investigate tlie reasons for it.
Election observers said the observed low turnout of voters in the upazila polls following a highly successful holding of the recent parliamentary election with a turnout of over 87 percent, disappointed everybody.
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But the election result sheets of the 187 upazilas depict a much more hopeful picture.
The Daily Star collected the data randomly last afternoon as those were being disclosed by the EC officials. The returning officers of the upazilas concerned started sending the result sheets to the EC Secretariat onThursday night.
The result sheet data show turnouts in some upazilas to be over 80 percent, and in a good number of other upazilas the turnouts were between 75 to 79 percent.
For example, the turnout in Autoary upazila of Panchagarh was a staggering 88.95 percent, in Mohonpur upazila of Rajshai it was 89.64 percent, in Shibalay upazila of Manikganj it was 81.11 percent, and in Nikhangchhari upazila of Bandarban the turnout was 81.36 percent.
Voter turnout in Pekua upazila of Cox's Bazar was 79.07 percent while in Fenchuganj of Sylhet it was 79.76 percent.
Some upazilas however witnessed poor voter turnouts. The turnout in Feni Sadar upazila was only 50.21 percent, in
Faridganj of Chandpur it was 49.78, and in Comilla Adarsha Sadar upazila the turnout was 50.44 percent.
The turnouts in most upazilas of Rajshahi, Khulna and Sylhet divisions were comparatively healthy.
The EC Secretariat officials were trying to disclose the result sheetsofall upazilas by last night, but could not.
The 183 upazilas, the data of which The Daily Star gathered, are under the districts of Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat, Panchagar, Dinajpur, Rajshahi, Sirajganj, Pabna. Gazipur, Kishoreganj, Manikganj. Munshiganj, Tangail, Jamalpur, Bhola, Barguna, Jhalakathi, Naraynganj, Narshingdi, Faridpur, Rajbari, Rangpur, Kushtia, Dhaka, Jessore, Chuadanga, Jhenaidah, Meherpur, Comilla, Chandpur, Brahmanbaria, Noakhali, Feni, Sylhet. Habiganj, Moulvibazar, Bandarban, Cox's Bazar, and Khagrachhari.
Low turnout of voters had been experienced in 1991 parliamentary election too, following a mass upsurge against autocratic military ruler HM Ershad, when the turnout was only 55.45 percent.