PM Hasina casts her vote, says she believes in people, boat will win

Awami League (AL) president and prime minister Sheikh Hasina has said she believes in people and boat, the symbol of her party Awami League, will win the polls.

She said this after casting her vote in the 12th parliamentary elections at the capital’s Dhaka City College centre a little after the balloting began at 8:00am on Sunday.

The prime minister arrived at the polling station with her daughter Saima Wazed, younger sister Sheikh Rehana, and Sheikh Rehana's son Radwan Mujib Siddiq before 8:00am.

Actor Ferdous Ahmed, who is contesting the polls on the Awami League ticket from Dhaka-10 constituency, welcomed the prime minister at the centre.

She also took pictures with the people deploying on polls duty. As voting kicked off, she then cast her ballot. Television channels broadcast her voting and speech afterwards live.

After casting the vote, Sheikh Hasina said, “We express our gratefulness to the people as we have conducted the election peacefully.”

Replying to a query on BNP not joining the election, Sheikh Hasina said the BNP is a terror and the people of Bangladesh do not sway with the wave of their hartals.

Earlier, voting to the 12th Jatiya Sangsad (JS) elections started at 8:00am and it will continue till 4:00pm without any break at 261,912 polling booths in 42,024 voting centres across the country.

According to the Election Commission, 119,689,289 voters, including 67,609,741 male, 58,918,699 females and 849 transgender, will vote to elect 299 members of parliament out of 300.

The commission earlier postponed the elections to Naogaon-2 due to independent candidate Aminul Islam's death.

A total of 1,970 candidates, including 1,534 from 28 political parties and 436 independents, are contesting in the polls.