Bangladeshis upbeat over voting safety, procedures

DHAKA (Reuters) - For Nur Mohammad, there was something unusual about the Bangladesh parliamentary election on Monday.

"This one is different. It is peaceful and orderly," the 65-year-old retired civil servant told Reuters at a polling station in the capital Dhaka.

His sentiment was echoed by voters across the South Asian nation of more than 140 million people as they waited to have their first direct say on their government in seven years.

A vote due in January 2007 was canceled by a military-backed "interim authority" amidst widespread political violence, and Bangladesh elections before that were often marred by fraud and intimidation at the polls.

But ahead of Monday's ballot the interim government cleaned up voter lists and distributed picture IDs, and on voting day thousands of security force members and election monitors were in place to try to prevent cheating and guarantee safety.

"It seems the election is being held without the presence of political leaders and activists," said voter Abdul Hye. "Previously, they controlled voting."

A festive air prevailed at many polling stations, where voters in some cases waited up to an hour to mark their ballots.

"I was waiting for this day eagerly. I missed the opportunity to vote in the last election in 2001 ... Now I am feeling very thrilled," said Bangladesh cricket captain Mohammad Ashraful.

The 24-year-old voted for the first time on Monday.

"People are coming to cast their ballots spontaneously. I had no problem at all," said Shilpi Das, 35, in northeastern Sylhet city, as she emerged from voting.

In Dhaka -- its normally hazy skies unusually clear on the election public holiday for which most car traffic had been banned -- many citizens stayed to chat outside polling places after voting.

In eastern Brahmanbaria district, a rural council chairman, Mohammad Jahangir, told Reuters by telephone: "There is no lack of enthusiasm. Security has been tight with police guarding the polling centers since Sunday night."

There were few signs of the strong-arm men who had featured in past elections, grabbing voters to demand guaranteed support for the certain candidates.

Mary Shubha, a member of the Christian religious minority in overwhelmingly Muslim Bangladesh, said no candidates or their agents interfered with her vote. "I did it of my free will. They did not press me for support."

Nor were there reports of widespread flows of money to buy votes, although officials in northern Bangladesh said they had detained around 30 people on Sunday night for bribe attempts.

But improved measures to prevent fraud and keep the peace did not mean cynicism about politicians had disappeared.

Past governments have made only limited progress in improving the economy of a nation where some 45 percent of the people are below the poverty line, and corruption has been endemic among politicians and officials.

"I don't think this vote will give us anything new," said Mohammad Mudasser, a rickshaw mechanic in Dhaka. "They forget their pledges after the election."

"I hope that they won't but I fear after this election the opposition parties may resort to strikes," he added, referring to the historic habit of the losers to employ street violence and work stoppages as anti-government tactics.

(Additional reporting by Azad Majumder, Ruma Paul and Jerry Norton; Writing by Anis Ahmed; Editing by Alex Richardson)