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The 13th Jatiya Sangsad election and a nationwide referendum are set to take place on Thursday (February 12), with voting scheduled from 7:30am to 4:30pm without interruption, according to local media reports.
As the parliamentary election and referendum are being held simultaneously for the first time, the Election Commission (EC) has extended voting hours by one hour, fixing a total of nine hours for balloting. A new postal voting system has also been introduced. The EC said the extended timeframe was necessary to manage two votes on the same day.
According to the Commission, young voters are expected to play a decisive role in determining the outcome of both the referendum and the parliamentary election. The number of voters under the age of 35 stands at over 49.0 million. Of them, approximately 21.2 million are aged between 18 and 25.
Within this age group, there are about 11.8 million male voters, 9.49 million female voters, and 408 voters identifying as third gender.
Meanwhile, the number of voters aged between 25 and 35 is around 17.8 million. Among them, roughly 14.1 million are male, 3.69 million female, and 567 third-gender voters.
The EC secretary said a total of 127.7 million registered voters will be eligible to cast their ballots in this election. Of them, approximately 64.8 million are male, 62.9 million female, and 1,232 third-gender voters.
Voting will be held in 299 out of the country’s 300 parliamentary constituencies. Polls in Sherpur-3 have been postponed following the death of a candidate and will be held later under a revised schedule.
Balloting will take place at 42,779 polling centres, of which 21,506 have been identified as high-risk. A total of 785,225 election officials will be deployed to conduct the vote. These include 42,779 presiding officers, 247,482 assistant presiding officers, and 494,964 polling officers.
Two divisional commissioners of Dhaka and Chattogram, all 64 deputy commissioners, and three regional election officers are serving as returning officers. In addition, 598 assistant returning officers have been appointed.
Out of 60 registered political parties, 50 are contesting in the election across 299 constituencies.
A total of 2,028 candidates are contesting the polls. Among them, 1,755 are party nominees and 273 are independent candidates. There are 83 female candidates—63 nominated by political parties and 20 running independently. Male candidates number 1,946, including 1,692 party nominees and 253 independents.
To ensure security during voting, members of various law enforcement and armed forces have been deployed. The Army has assigned 103,000 personnel, the Navy has deployed 5,000 members in 17 constituencies across five coastal districts, and the Air Force has assigned around 3,500 personnel.
In addition, 37,453 members of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), 3,585 Coast Guard personnel, 187,603 police officers, 9,349 Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) members, 567,868 Ansar personnel, and 1,922 Bangladesh National Cadet Corps (BNCC) members will work to maintain security at polling centres.
To address electoral offences, 657 judicial magistrates, 1,047 executive magistrates, and 300 judicial magistrates assigned to election inquiry committees are on duty. Authorities have formed multiple committees to maintain law and order.
In 468 cases filed for violations of the electoral code of conduct, fines totalling Tk 3.22 million have been imposed in 259 cases against candidates and their supporters. Election inquiry committees have imposed summary fines amounting to Tk 0.39 million.
At the invitation of the EC, 57 foreign observers, 335 self-funded foreign observers, and 156 foreign journalists have already arrived in the country. Additionally, 44,995 local observers from 80 organisations will monitor the polls.