<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Voting in Khulna City Corporation (KCC) and Barishal City Corporation (BCC) elections began amid much enthusiasm this morning.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Voters are seen standing in long queues at polling centres to cast their votes using electronic voting machines (EVM) in a peaceful manner.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Voting began at 8 am and will continue till 4 pm without any break.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">No untoward incident was reported till this report was filed around 8:30 am. The city corporation elections are being monitored by the Election Commission from Dhaka through CCTV cameras.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A good number of law enforcers have been deployed to ensure tight security measures at each polling station so that voters can exercise their right.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the Khulna city corporation election, five candidates are vying for the mayoral post, 136 for councillors in 29 general wards, and 30 for reserved seats.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Two councillors for wards 13 and 24 were elected unopposed earlier.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Awami League-backed candidate Talukder Abdul Khaleque cast his vote at Pioneer Secondary Girls School centre on the city’s South Central Road around 9:10am.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After voting, the mayoral candidate said the election is being held in a free, fair manner.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I will accept whatever result coming from the voters,” he said, hoping that people will vote for him for continuation of the development.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Eleven platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) are carrying out their duty to ensure security in the KCC election along with 8,080 members from police, Ansar and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are 5,35,528 voters in the 31 wards of Khulna city and there are 1,732 polling booths under 289 polling stations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of them, 161 polling stations are considered “vulnerable”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand, seven candidates are competing for the mayoral post in the Barishal city polls.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Besides, 119 candidates are in the race for the post of general councillor and 42 candidates for the reserved councillor post.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Awami League-backed mayoral candidate Abul Khair Abdullah Khokon Serniabat cast his vote at the Government Barishal College on Kalibari road in the city.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jatiya Party-backed candidate Iqbal Hossain Taposh exercised his franchise at Syed Abul Manan DDF Alim Madrasah on Gorostan road, Islami Andolon Bangladesh candidate Mufti Syed Muhammad Faizul Karim at Rupatoli Housing Abdur Rob Serniabat Secondary School.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zaker Party’s candidate Md Mizanur Rahman Bachhu also cast his vote at Chhutpur Secondary School while independent candidate Md Kamrul Ahsan Rupon at Alekanda Govt Primary School in the city.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A total of 276,298 voters will be able to cast their votes in 126 polling stations in 30 wards. Of the centres, 106 are considered “vulnerable”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ten platoons of the BGB remain deployed in the BCC election along with 4,500 members of the law enforcing agencies. UNB</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>