Voting ends in Bangladesh: Violence clashes at many polling booths, allegations of harassing women agents

Dhaka. Voting for the 13th parliamentary elections ended in Bangladesh on Thursday. Voting was held on 299 seats amid tight security and great enthusiasm among the people. However, cases of heavy violence during voting and misbehavior with women agents at polling booths have also come to light. Voting took place from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm at 42,659 polling booths across the country.

According to information shared by Bangladeshi media, the election on Sherpur-3 seat has been postponed after the death of a candidate. A total of 127,298,522 voters were eligible to cast their votes on 299 seats. These include 64,620,077 male voters, 62,677,232 female voters and 1,213 third-gender voters.

If we talk about total 300 seats then the total number of voters is 127,711,899. Bangladeshi media was told by the Election Commission that till 2 pm, 48 percent voting took place. Independent candidate Tasneem Jara alleged that female polling agents were being harassed and prevented from entering polling centers at many places in Dhaka-9 constituency.

Speaking to the media after visiting the Khilgaon Model College polling centre, Jara said that their polling agents, especially women, are facing hurdles while trying to enter many centres. “Our polling agents are being stopped from entering the polling centers on different pretexts. They are not being allowed inside, and women agents are being harassed,” he said.

Jara alleged that polling booth officials were creating obstacles by making arbitrary rules. Female agents were prevented from entering, forced to leave the center, or given different instructions.
Let us tell you that even before this, independent women candidates of Bangladesh alleged that they were facing problems. Women are facing character assassination or threats. At the same time, information about explosions in two polling booths, Gopalganj and Munshiganj also came to light.