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Bangladesh ferry capsize kills 32 ... state of emergency a year-and-a-half ago.
People are voting in four city corporations and nine municipalities.
Emergency measures have been be relaxed in areas where voting is taking place.
General elections due last year were postponed after political violence and are now to be held in December.
Bangladesh's main parties say national polls should have been held first.
But the country's election commissioner says he hopes the local polls will be a model for the general elections.
Criminal charges
In the run-up to these local elections, some of the government's emergency rules were lifted to allow, for example, candidates to campaign in public.
But because the election commission says it is worried about violence on election day, the laws were re-imposed on Saturday night.
Armed police are reported to be patrolling the four cities - Sylhet, Khulna, Borisal and Rajshahi - where the votes are behind 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.
Bangladesh's two main parties condemned the timing of the local elections.
The Awami League said free and fair elections could not be held under a state of emergency, while the Bangladesh Nationalist Party called for protests.
Observers say they both fear their power base may be weakened by the local vote.
(BBC)
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