With the upcoming Khulna City Corporation (KCC) elections to be held on June 12, candidates are collecting nomination papers to compete in the polls.
Till Sunday afternoon, 181 people have collected nomination papers including seven for the post of mayor in the KCC election.
On Sunday, Jatiya Party's Shafiqul Islam Madhu and independent candidate Engineer Syed Kamrul Islam collected nomination papers for the post of mayor.
KCC Election Returning Officer Md Alauddin said that till afternoon, seven people have collected nomination papers for the post of mayor, 141 people for the post of general councillor and 33 people for the post of reserved councillor.
Candidates are advised to abide by the election code of conduct. At the same time, instructions have been given to remove their propaganda material. In this election, the total number of voters in 31 wards of the metropolis is 5,35,529 people, he added.
Earlier, Awami League nominated mayoral candidate and current mayor Talukdar Abdul Khalek, Islami Andolan Bangladesh nominated mayoral candidate Maulana Abdul Awal, Aguan-71 nominated mayoral candidate Md Abdullah Chowdhury, independent candidate former member of parliament Abdul Gaffar Biswas and SM Shafiqur Rahman collected nomination papers.
Voters increased by 42,000
According to Khulna district election office sources, there were 493,093 voters in Khulna in the 2018 election. This time the total number of voters is 535,529 people. Among them, 268,833 are male voters and 266,696 female voters.
In the span of five years, the total number of voters increased by 42,436 people. In this election, there are 289 polling stations and 1,732 booths. In the 2018 election, there were 289 polling stations and 1,561 booths. This time the number of booths has increased to 171.
Meanwhile, the voter number has increased in 29 of the 31 wards of the city in a span of five years, but it has decreased in the 8th and 11th wards of Khalishpur industrial area.