The average voter turnout for the first phase of the sixth Upazila Parishad elections was 36.1 percent.

The turnout was an average of 31.31 percent for the 22 Upazilas using electronic voting machines, while the turnout averaged 37.22 percent in those constituencies using paper ballots, Election Commissioner Md Alamgir told the media at the election regulator’s office in Dhaka on Thursday.

Polls were held in 139 Upazilas in the first phase of the elections on Wednesday.

The average turnout was calculated from the percentage of votes cast for the post of chairman, he said.

The lowest turnout was seen in the Sonatala, Mirsarai, and Kushtia Sadar polls, which only registered 17 percent. The highest turnout was Joypurhat’s Khetlal Upazila with 73 percent.

• A total of 1,619 candidates are contesting the first phase of the Upazila Parishad election with 565 of them vying for the chairman posts, 619 for vice chairman and 435 for women vice chairman posts
• At least 28 of them, including 8 chairmen, 10 vice chairmen and 10 women vice chairmen were elected uncontested
• More than 31.4 million voters can cast their ballots at 81,804 polling booths in 11,556 voting centres in 139 Upazilas
• Among them, more than 16 million are male voters and 15.4 million are female voters, while 188 are third-gender voters.

The sixth Upazila Parishad election will be held in four phases.

The 12th national election on Jan 7, saw a 42 percent voter turnout.

In 2009, the third Upazila Parishad election saw a 67.69 percent turnout while the figure dropped to 61 percent in the fourth Upazila election in 2014. In 2019, the rate was around 41 percent in the fifth Upazila election.

Since the Upazila Parishad council was introduced in 1985, there were one-day votes in 1990 and 2009. But in 2014, the local government elections were held in six phases and the 2019 election in five phases.

The Upazila election is typically held within four months of the 12th parliamentary election. The Election Commission took ‘all necessary preparations’ to have a free and fair election this time, said Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal. They were trying their best to ‘prevent any influence on the voting,’ he said.

To allow for a ‘competitive’ election, the ruling party Awami League did not nominate any candidate or allow their party symbol to be used by any of those running. Hence, Awami League leaders vying for the Upazila posts are running as independent candidates.

After the last general election, the Election Commission’s biggest challenges for the polls are to ensure good voter turnout while keeping the election free of any influence, believe election observers.