Voting in the city corporation elections of Dhaka and Chittagong cities has begun. The polling at the three city corporations began at 8.00am on Tuesday and will continue until 4.00pm. During visit, it was seen that voters began to gather at many polling centers from 7.00am to cast their votes. About 75,000 members of several law-enforcing agencies have been deployed to ensure safety of the voters and law and order in Dhaka South, Dhaka North and Chittagong city corporations. Earlier, election materials including ballot papers reached polling stations on Monday night. The mayoral and councillor candidates wrapped up their election campaigns on Saturday midnight as per the election rules. The government has declared a general holiday Tuesday in Dhaka North City Corporation, Dhaka South City Corporation and Chittagong City Corporation so that all voters can exercise their voting rights. As part of the Election Commission arrangements, around 50,000 polling agents are performing their duties in the three city corporations. Magistrates are conducting mobile courts at 143 wards in three cities —57 in DSCC, 36 in DNCC and 41 in CCC and it will continue until Wednesday. In DSCC, there are 1,870,753 voters who will cast their ballots at 889 polling stations; in DNCC, there are 2,345,374 voters who will vote at 1093 polling stations; in Chittagong, there are 1,813,449 voters who will exercise their voting rights at 719 polling centres.
