National
5 years ago

Voting in second phase upazila election begins

Published :

Updated :

Voting in the second phase election to 116 Upazila Parishads in different districts began on Monday morning.

The balloting began at 8:00 am and will continue till 4:00 pm without any break.

Some 377 chairman, 548 vice-chairman and 400 woman vice-chairman candidates are contesting the election in the second phase.

Besides, 23 chairman, 13 vice-chairman and 12 woman vice-chairman contestants have already been elected uncontested in the absence of any valid candidate to oppose them.

Some 17,909,006 voters are expected to exercise their rights through 7,039 polling stations this day.

A large number of security members, including police, RAB, BGB and Coast Guard, have been deployed in the election areas since Saturday. They are slated to remain so till Wednesday.

Besides, a judicial magistrate was deployed in each upazila and an executive magistrate for every three union parishads for five days to punish any violations of the polls code.

A security team comprising 14-16 members drawn from police, Ansar and VDP will guard each polling station on the day.

The Public Administration announced a public holiday in the 116 upazilas for Monday.

The first phase of the election was held on March 10.

The third phase election is scheduled to be held on March 24 and the fourth phase on March 31.

The first upazila election was held in 1985, while the following three were held in 1990, 2009 and 2014. The fourth upazila election was arranged in six phases after the 10th parliamentary election was held in January 2014.

The BNP, the major rival of the ruling Awami League, alleging huge irregularities in the last general election, has decided against joining the upazila election.

Share this news