Dhaka, Feb. 12 -- - Polls closed in Bangladesh on Thursday in a landmark general election seen as a direct contest between Tarique Rahman's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and an 11-party alliance led by the resurgent Jamaat-e-Islami, after voting centers shut their gates at 4.30 pm.
While the final voting percentage is yet to be declared, vote counting has begun, officials said. Voter turnout reached nearly 48 per cent by 3 pm, they said.
The Election Commission (EC) has yet to receive voter turnout data from 6,620 polling centres across the country, the commission's Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said, explaining the delay in announcing voter turnout.
About 127 million people were registered to vote, including around 5 million first-...