The New Nation - Internet Edition

Pulack Ghatack

The country is going to the polls today after nearly two years of emergency rule aimed at bringing the nation back to democracy.

Voting will begin at 8 AM and end at 4 PM continuing at a stretch. However, polling might be continued until all the voters, who would enter into the compounds of polling centres within this time, finish their casting, Election Commission (EC) sources said.

Counting will start soon after voting ends and initial results are expected by December 30. A total of 1,555 candidates, including some 50 women, are in the fray for 299 parliamentary seats, as election in Noakhali-1 constituency has been deferred to January 12 following death of Ganotantri Party leader Nurul Islam, who was a candidate there.

Of the citizens, some 8,10,58,698 registered voters, of which 50.9 percent are females, are eligible to exercise their franchise. Women voters outnumber men for the first time.

Total 54 parties and 1935 candidates contested in the last general election held in 2001 when the number of voters was 3,86,84,972.

The number of political parties and candidates drastically dropped this time around for tough political party-registration rules framed in tune with the clean-up drive conducted in the longest-running interim period that had thrown most of the country's top political leaders behind bars.

The number of voters also came down despite a huge population growth in seven years, thanks to the Commission's milestone-success in preparing a flawless voters list with the help of Army.

To guard against fraud, the EC has compiled a fresh list of voters, provided photographic identity cards, and will use transparent ballot boxes.

Voting is expected to bear little resemblance to previous graft-ridden elections due to the new digital electoral roll that eliminated 12.7 million fake names.

Police have captured two dozen militants and seized explosives, grenades and bombs in recent days, but campaigning has been free of the widespread violence seen in past elections .

"We have seen a radical change in the behaviour of the parties during election campaigning," EC Secretary Humayun Kabir told this correspondent.

"Except for some minor incidents, there has been little violence. We are confident the election will be the best in the country's history," he added.

The Awami League and BNP respectively led by former prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Begum Khaleda Zia are the front-runners in the election. Some 191 candidates are also contesting independently in the polls.

Over 500 foreign observers and around 2 lakh local monitors are tracking the election process for fairness.

Though the number of voters decreased the Commission has set an increased number of polling boots this year comparing 1,49,288 of 2002 to keep up the speed of franchise in line with photographic voter-list.

A total of 35,216 polling centres have been set up across the country and the Commission has completed all preparations for holding the elections, which are highly significant for the nation for its democratic transition.

The EC in cooperation with Caretaker Government has arranged a tight security to ensure trouble-free polls. About 50,000 soldiers and more than 600,000 police, paramilitary and police auxiliaries will be on duty on the election day.

The candidates this time can give voter serial numbers outside centres, which may help speedy polling in the election booths, sources in the commission said.

The voting in the August polls to four city corporations and nine municipalities had gone slow as the voters were not provided serial numbers, he observed.