Bangladesh sees low voter turnout, Awami League leader murdered

DHAKA: Bangladesh on Sunday recorded low voter turnout in the first few hours of polling for 12th general elections amid reports of clash, violence that claimed life of Awami League leader and rigging.

Awami League leader Zillur Rahman was found dead near a polling centre in Munshiganj this morning, The Daily Star reported.

Rahman was a supporter of AL-nominated candidate from Munshiganj-3 Mrinal Kanti Das. Munshiganj SP said Aslam Khan said the body was recovered but there were no reports of violence from the polling centre.

Earlier in the day, a clash broke out between opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) men and police in Chattogram city's Chandgaon area.

The BNP men, who were staging demonstrations by blocking the road with burning tyres, threw stones on police personnel who retaliated, police said.

Voting at Narsingdi-4 (Monohardi-Belabo) was cancelled over allegations of ballot stuffing.

A polling station in Dhaka recorded only 175 votes while no votes were cast at two centres.

The voting, which began at 8.00 a.m. local time at over 42,000 polling centres, will continue till 4.00 p.m. local time

According to the Election Commission, a total of 1,970 candidates are in the fray for 299 parliamentary constituencies.

At one seat, the election will be held later because of the death of an independent candidate.

The candidates include 1,534 from political parties and 436 independents.

The BNP had called a 48-hour nationwide general strike from Saturday seeking resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Hasina is set to win fourth straight term in office for Prime Minister with the main opposition BNP boycotting the polls.