<div style="text-align: justify; "><b><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud has said that the voters did not pay heed to BNP’s call for boycotting the first phase of the upazila parishad polls and the elections were held peacefully with a satisfactory level of voters’ turnout.</span><br></b></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I would say voters’ turnout was very satisfactory,” he told reporters while responding to a question at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Awami League joint general secretary said local government elections are also held in the region including in India, Nepal and Pakistan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He said compared to other elections and compared to the elections in the region, the level of violence was very low in Bangladesh. “Elections were held peacefully.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hasan said on Thursday that BNP boycotted the polls and urged the voters to refrain from voting but the voters did not pay heed to that call.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Even their candidates did not listen and they took part in elections. So, the election was very satisfactory,” he added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd/fas</div>