Voting was held in the Chittagong-10 (Doublemooring, Pahartali and Halishahar) by-election from 8am till 4pm on Sunday through EVMs at 1,261 booths of 156 polling stations.
However, voter turnout had been low since the morning. Officials said the presence of voters in the centre might increase as the day progressed.
At the Chittagong Govt Women's College centre, 260 out of 3,816 male voters and 145 out of 3,385 female voters had exercised their franchise as of 11:30am.
Presiding Officer Sujan Kanti Das said voter turnout would increase as the day progressed.
At Pahartali Railway Hospital Colony Primary School centre in the city in the morning, the voters were seen jammed in front of the centre. Along with the Ansars, the supporters of the Awami League candidate were fixing the voters' line. Sufficient police personnel were deployed in the centre. The centre has more women voters than men.
Chittagong-10 constituency Returning Officer and Chittagong Regional Election Officer Muhammad Hasanuzzaman said: “Voting has started in the by-elections. All preparations have been made to make the elections fair. There are 2,110 EVMs for polling and 4,106 polling officers.”
“Eight executive magistrates and two judicial magistrates is on duty since Saturday till August 1 to maintain order in the elections. Besides, sufficient law enforcement personnel are deployed in the centre. The polling stations are being monitored through 1,407 CCTV cameras,” he added.
Five candidates are contesting the election. They are Awami League candidate Mohiuddin Bachchu (boat symbol), independent candidate Manjurul Islam Bhuiyan (rocket symbol), Jatiya Party candidate Md Shamsul Alam (plough symbol), grassroots BNP's Deepak Kumar Palit (golden fibre symbol), Bangladesh Sangskritik Mukti Jote's Rashid Mia (stick symbol) and Mohammad Arman Ali (balloon).
According to sources in the returning officer's office, 14 candidates collected nomination forms for the by-election of this seat while six of them have submitted their nomination form. Among them, the nomination papers of one candidate have been cancelled but the remaining five are contesting the election.
The total number of voters in this constituency is 488,638 people. Among them, 248,938 were men and 239,677 women. Apart from this, there are 23 voters of the third gender (transgender) in this seat.
The election commission announced the schedule on June 8 after declaring this seat vacant due to the death of parliament member and former minister Dr Afsarul Amin. Accordingly, by-elections are held on Sunday.
Chittagong-10 MP and former primary and mass education minister Dr Afsarul Amin died on June 2 while undergoing treatment. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in January 2020. Since then, he was under treatment in various hospitals.
Our Chittagong correspondent, Pimple Barua, contributed to this report
