Voting kicks off in Bangladeshi local body polls

Amid tight security, polling stations across Bangladesh opened Wednesday morning for the country's first-ever local body polls on party line nomination.

Around 7.1 million voters of 234 municipalities will exercise their franchise to elect around 3,924 public representatives, including 234 mayors from over 12,000 aspirants.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has vowed to quell electoral violence in the polls which are being held for the first time in a partisan manner in which political parties directly nominated candidates to test their popularity in such elections.

Thousands of polling stations set in schools and other public buildings opened at 8:00 a.m. local time and would last till 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Some 20 parties including ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which sat out the 2014 national polls, have joined the elections.

Long queues of voters have reportedly been seen at many centres, defying the bitter cold morning.

A Xinhua correspondent reported from a center in Savar on the outskirts of capital Dhaka that a large number of voters including females started coming to exercise their rights amid festive mood there.

"I'm satisfied at the election atmosphere. Since the polls are on political party line nomination, many voters have come to cast their ballots for their parties mayor aspirants," said Fahmida Jigor Jahan who queued up to vote since morning. Endit