5th phase voting to 29 municipalities Sunday

Voting to 29 pourashavas in the fifth phase will be held on Sunday. It will continue from 8:00am to 4:00pm where Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be used.

The Election Commission (EC) has already completed all preparations for holding the pourashava polls in a peaceful manner.

Additional members of police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Border Guard of Bangladesh (BGB) will guard the voting areas.

On the same day, by-elections will also be held against the chairmen of four upazila parishads and various posts of 14 union parishads.

EC officials said magistrates will also discharge their duties alongside additional law enforcement personnel.

Members of the law enforcement have been instructed to keep the situation normal while traffic restrictions have been imposed in the election areas.

According to commission sources, the polls schedule was announced on 19 January for 31 pourashavas in the fifth phase. Later, Syedpur pourashava was added to this phase.

Due to the verdict of the higher court, the voting of Jashore pourashava was postponed while in Raozan municipality under Chattogram, the candidates for all posts including mayor and councilor were elected unopposed.

Meanwhile, the EC has postponed the election of Dewanganj pourashava of Jamalpur for indefinite period.

According to sources, 100 candidates are contesting for the post of mayor in the municipalities, 1,318 in the general wards and 366 in the reserved wards.

These pourashavas have 637 polling stations and 4,323 polling booths. There are 14,14,297 voters including 7,07,775 males and 7,27,297 females.