In some constituencies, the voter turnout in the afternoon was supposedly four and a half times that of the morning but it could not go passed 40 percent.

Every two hours, the Election Commission updated voter turnout data for each constituency via an app.

The Daily Star logged voter turnout data from over 10,000 centres, or a little under a quarter of all the polling stations.

At the 10:00am mark, the average turnout was 9 percent. The turnout was actually 5 percent and less in as many as 35 constituencies, mainly in urban areas like Dhaka, and where mornings are cold like in Kurigram, Bogura, Pabna, and Sylhet.

By noon, that average had made a steep climb by two and half times to 22 percent.

Between noon and 2:00pm, the average turnout had made a tapered increase to 33 percent. It was at the end of this period that the Election Commission Secretary Mohammad Jahangir Alam came out and said that the polls had drawn 27.15 percent of voters.

At least 70 constituencies had turnouts which were considerably less than the figure revealed by the secretary.

The EC app that was supposed to deliver data on turnout was not functional after 4:00pm and did not provide data on the final voter turnout as of filing this report at 11:00pm.

However, at the end of the voting, the national turnout was "approximately 40 percent", according to the chief election commissioner.

While the turnout of about 50 constituencies crawled as the hours ticked over, data from some constituencies stood out.

At 10:00am yesterday, only 6 percent votes had been cast in Rajshahi-4. Between 10:00am and 2:00pm, the voting rate skyrocketed 617 percent, the fastest in any constituency.

The turnout in Rajshahi-4 at 2:00pm was 43 percent, showed Election Commission data.

Rajshahi-4, comprising Bagmara, went to polls amid an intense intra-party rivalry between Awami League-nominated candidate Abul Kalam Azad and "AL independent" Enamul Haque.

Analysts predicted a hard-fought battle and a comparatively higher turnout in the constituency.

The rivalry between the two was so strong that 10 out of the 13 instances of pre-polls violence in the district happened in Bagmara. Two schools serving as voting centres were set on fire before the election.

Bogura-4 saw the second-highest voting rate climb, this newspaper found.

According to sources, the entirety of the AL grassroots threw their weight behind ex-BNP leader Ziaul Haque Mollah as a part of a seat-sharing deal with the AL's 14-party allies, leaving the AL nominee and incumbent lawmaker Karim Tansen hanging out to dry.

At 10:00am, a paltry 3 percent of the voters showed up in Bagura-4 but by 2:00pm, the turnout shot up to 20 percent.

Tansen eventually won by a narrow margin.

The nationwide turnout at 2:00pm was 33 percent, according to the data provided by the EC app. While the turnout in Bogura-4 was less than the average, the sudden climb towards the end of the day made it stand out.

Sirajganj-4 saw the third-highest climb rate between 10:00am and 2:00pm. It had a 6 percent turnout in the morning and 36 percent in the afternoon.

AL nominee Md Shafiqul Islam had no real contender. His rival from Jatiyo Party had unofficially pulled out a day before and many voters considered the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal candidate a prop.

The seat with the highest turnout at 2:00pm was Gopalganj-3, the seat of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. At 2:00pm, this constituency had a 62 percent turnout.

Chattogram-6 followed close behind with a 61 percent turnout at 2:00pm. This is the constituency of AL bigshot ABM Fazle Karim Chowdhury.

Faridpur-4 saw a strong battle between Kazi Zafarullah, AL praesidium member and steering committee co-chairperson who had designed the party's entire election campaign, and Mujibur Rahman Chowdhury Nixon, Jubo League praesidium member and the prime minister's cousin.

This high-voltage battle saw a turnout of 54 percent at 2:00pm.

The neck-and-neck battle in Natore-3 between former Singra upazila chairman Shafiqul Islam Shafiq and State Minister of ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak resulted in a voter turnout of 47 percent at 2:00pm.

Even though Gopalganj-1 is an AL stronghold, the boat-insignia still had to face a tough challenge in the form of "AL independent" and former Muksudpur upazila chairman Kabir Miah. The AL nominee for the constituency is party praesidium member Faruk Khan.

Since both the candidates were heavyweights, the turnout was 47 percent at 2:00pm.

Farukh Khan eventually had a narrow win.

In Madaripur-1, AL candidate had no real competition but the chief whip and cousin to the PM Noor-e-Alam Chowdhury drew in a voter turnout of 47 percent in the afternoon.

Khulna-1 saw a 45 percent turnout at 2:00pm. This constituency has the highest number of voters from the Hindu community. In addition, the AL and the "AL independent" candidates are from the religious community.

The Daily Star correspondents saw ballot stuffing in polling centres of several constituencies. Most of those constituencies had a low turnout.

In Dhaka-13, our correspondent observed ballot stuffing in seven polling centres. Dhaka-13 had a 4 percent turnout at 10:00am and only increased to 15 percent at 2:00pm.

In Dhaka-10, our correspondents saw ballot stuffing in two voting centres. By 2:00pm, the turnout was 15 percent.

Similarly, our correspondents observed Bangladesh Chhatra League men barge into Curzon Hall of Dhaka-8, throw out journalists and stuff ballot boxes. Dhaka-8 had a turnout of only 14 percent at 2:00pm.