The third phase of the country's sixth Upazila Parishad election was held in 87 upazilas in Bangladesh on Wednesday.
The voting began at 8am and continued till 4pm without any break and the vote counting has started.
A total of 1,196 candidates were in the electoral race against 261 posts of 87 upazila parishads.
The candidates included 397 chairman contenders, 456 vice chairman and 299 women (reserved) vice chairman contestants.
Over 20.8 million voters — 1,06,40,347 males, 1,02,34,723 females and 114 transgender persons — are registered under 7,450 polling stations in the 87 upazilas, according to the factsheets provided by the Election Commission on Tuesday.
EC: Polling in 20 upazilas postponed due to Cyclone Remal on June 9Among them, the electronic voting machines was used at 16 upazilas in seven districts, while the traditional ballot papers in the rest upazilas.
On April 18, the Election Commission announced the election schedule for 112 upazila parishads to conduct the balloting in the third phase.
However, the commission later postponed elections to 24 upazila parishads on different grounds.
Among them, the balloting in 22 upazilas was suspended due to Cyclone Remal, one upazila (Raipura in Narsingdi) for the death of a candidate and another upazila for legal complexities.
Besides, all the candidates against three posts — chairman and two vice chairman posts — were already elected uncontested finding no rival contender against their respective posts in Bhandaria upazila of Pirojpur.
The fourth phase of voting is scheduled for June 5, followed by the rescheduled elections on June 9.
Out of the 495 upazilas in the country, more than 450 upazilas are participating in the four-phase election process this time. Voting was completed in 139 upazilas during the first phase on May 8, in 156 upazilas during the second phase on May 21, and in 87 upazilas during the third phase on Wednesday.
