EC plans to add polling centres, reduce booths for next election

The Election Commission has released a draft list of 42,500 potential polling stations for the parliamentary polls, which will serve some 125 million voters.

EC Secretary Akhtar Ahmed shared the development on Wednesday.

Despite a higher number of registered voters, the commission has moved to reduce both polling stations and booths, citing management convenience.

Compared with the 12th parliamentary election two years ago, the draft reflects only 468 more polling stations, but about 17,426 fewer booths.

Bangladesh currently has more than 126.3 million registered voters.

The commission said claims and objections to the draft list can be filed until Sept 25.

The review will be completed by Oct 12, and the list of polling stations will be finalised by Oct 20.

By law, the commission must publish the constituency-wise list of polling stations in the form of a gazette at least 25 days before the election.

At a briefing at the Election Bhaban, the commission’s secretary said the draft includes 42,618 possible polling centres, with 244,046 polling booths in total.

Of those, 114,939 booths are designated for men and 129,107 for women.

While the average allocation of one polling station for 3,000 voters has been maintained, the revised policy increases the number of male and female booths.

This time, one booth will be assigned for every 600 male voters and every 500 female voters.

Previously, one booth was provided for 500 male voters and 400 female voters at a centre of 3,000 voters.

In the last election, there were 42,150 polling stations for 119.1 million voters, with 261,472 polling booths in total.