Voting in the 12th parliamentary elections began on Sunday morning with the ruling Awami League victory guaranteed for a historic fourth consecutive term amid an opposition boycott.The balloting began at 8am and will continue till 4pm without any break amid tight security in 299 out of the country’s 300 constituencies.
Voting in Naogaon-2 constituency has been postponed following the death of an independent contender, according to the Election Commission.Some 1,970 candidates, including 436 independent contenders are running in the general election. In 80 to100 constituencies, tough fights are expected to be seen between AL candidates and its own rivals who are running as independent contestants. Out of 44 political parties registered with the Election Commission, 16 parties are out of the electoral race.There are 11,93,33,157 voters –-6,05,92,169 males, 5,87,40,140 females and 848 transgenders – who have voting rights under 260,858 booths of 42,024 polling stations in the constituencies, according to the EC.
Some eight lakh security men are there on election duty to maintain the electoral atmosphere by checking violation of codes of conduct throughout the country. Of them, 38,154 Army personnel, 2,827 Navy personnel (19 districts), 45,185 (1158 platoons) BGB personnel, 2520 (75 platoons) Coast Guard personnel, 600 Rab teams and 95 Rab reserve teams, 184,959 police personnel and 5,58,500 Ansar men. Besides, 653 judicial magistrates and some 2,000 (2,076) executive magistrates are in the field to punish the violation of electoral code of conduct.
According to the Election Commission, some nine lakh polling officials including 42024 presiding officers, 260,856 assistant presiding officers and some 522,000 polling officers are there to cast the ballot throughout the country. On November 15, 2023, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal announced the schedule to hold the 12th general election on January 7, 2024.
