Voters barred from carrying mobile phones into polling centres

Voters will not be allowed to carry mobile phones inside polling centres during the 13th national parliamentary election and the referendum. This was stated in a notice issued by the Election Commission on Sunday.

The notice said, “Mobile phones cannot be taken within the 400-yard radius of a polling station.”

Although ordinary voters are barred from carrying mobile phones into polling stations, three categories of individuals will be permitted to do so.

They are the presiding officer of the polling station, the police officer-in-charge on duty at the centre, and two members of Ansar or VDP, deployed at the polling centre, who use the ‘Election Security 2026’ app.

Voting in the 13th national parliamentary election will take place on Thursday, 12 February. Voting will be held continuously from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm.

This time, there are more than 42,000 polling centres across 64 districts, with nearly 250,000 polling booths in total.

Voting will be held in 299 of the 300 parliamentary constituencies on 12 February. Polling in Sherpur-3 will not take place due to the death of a candidate. A total of 51 political parties registered with the Election Commission are contesting the election.