Bangladesh holds peaceful polls

The poll is a prelude to general elections in December

Bangladeshis have voted in local elections, the first polls since the caretaker government declared a state of emergency a year-and-a-half ago.

The BBC's Mark Dummett in Dhaka says that voting passed off without any scenes of violence or vote rigging that have scarred past elections.

Polling was held in four city corporations and nine municipalities.

Emergency measures were relaxed in areas where voting took place and officials say the turn-out was high.

Long delays

Our correspondent says that the peaceful nature of the vote will come as a huge relief to the government and the army, which staked their reputations on ensuring a credible transition to democracy.

The election commission says about 1.3 million voters - or 1.5% of Bangladesh's electorate - were eligible to take part in Monday's poll. They hope it will be a model for future ballots.

General elections were postponed last year after months of violence

The government has promised to organise general elections by the end of the year.

But voting on Monday was not entirely smooth.

There were long delays because many voters and polling agents were confused by the new voter roll and identity system.

The election commission claimed them to be the best in the country's history.

Bangladesh's main parties say national polls should have been held first.

The Awami League said that free and fair elections could not be held under a state of emergency, while the Bangladesh Nationalist Party called for protests.

In the run-up to these local elections, some of the government's emergency rules were lifted to allow candidates to campaign in public.

But because the election commission said it was worried about violence on election day, the laws were re-imposed on Saturday night.

Armed police patrolled the four cities - Sylhet, Khulna, Borisal and Rajshahi - where the voting was held.

Officially the candidates all have to be independent but some have been endorsed by different parties and so the results should give an indication of their relative strengths.

Observers say both main parties fear their power base may be weakened by the local vote.