Thousands of voters queued outside polling stations on Monday as voting for Bangladesh's landmark Parliamentary election started amid unprecedented security, with army troops and other para military forces keeping a sharp vigil.The voting started at 8.00 am and it is to continue until four in the afternoon, while the counting will begin manually, immediately after the end of the polling in 35,263 polling stations across the country.The Election Commission officials said they expected the unofficial results to be announced by early tomorrow in the ninth Parliamentary election in which former Premier Sheikh Hasina's Awami League-led Grand Alliance and her arch rival Khaleda Zia's BNP-led four party coalition appeared as the major contenders to form the next government.Over 8.10 crore voters were enrolled in the country's first ever digital electoral roll with photograph as the election to the 300-seat Parliament comes after seven years of gap at the end of two years of the state of emergency under an interim government, crucially backed by the army.No major pre-poll violence was reported as electioneering ended on Friday midnight but officials and reports said a number of people were arrested as rival candidates at several places tried to distribute money in city slums and in remote villages in their bid to "buy votes".Police said they seized cartons filled with Taka 41.5 lakh in the south eastern port city of Chittagong in one such case, while they arrested several activists mostly belonging to the BNP-led alliance with cash allegedly to be used to woo voters.
