Election Commission Secretary Md Jahangir Alam announced that voter turnout in the first four hours of the third phase of upazila elections was below 20%.

He provided this information during a press conference held at Nirbachan Bhaban in Agargaon on Wednesday.

Jahangir Alam noted that due to network disruptions caused by Cyclone Remal, no data has been accessible through the app since the morning. Consequently, data collection had to be done manually in the field.

"According to the manually collected data so far, the average voter turnout is below 20%," he said.

In the first phase of the upazila parishad elections on May 8, the voter turnout was 36%, followed by 38% in the second phase on May 21.

On Wednesday, voters are selecting new representatives in 87 upazilas during the third phase of the upazila parishad elections.

Election officials reported that polling began at the scheduled time of 8am in 7,500 centers across these upazilas and will continue until 4pm.