Dhaka, Feb. 2 -- Only 29 percent of voters turned out in the South while the figure dropped further in the North to 25.3 percent following Chief Election Commisioner KM Nurul Huda's prediction of an average turnout below 30 percent.

The presence of the ruling party activists outside the polling stations was significant throughout the day, but there was desperation to draw voters inside.

The decline in turnout in different polls since the boycott of the 2014 general election by most of the political parties had been described by Election Commissioner Mahbub Talukdar as an ominous sign for Bangladesh's democracy.

In the 2015 elections to the city corporations in the capital and Chattogram, the average turnout was 43 percent. In the mayor...