A total of 47.91% votes were cast in 36,031 centers until 2pm in the 13th National Parliamentary Election, Election Commission (EC) Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said on Thursday.
Briefing reporters at the Election Commission, he said voting took place at 42,651 centers across the country.
“Until 2pm, 47.91% votes have been cast in 36,031 centers. Though the rate was low at noon, it increased later,” he said.
Responding to allegations raised by Jamaat, the EC secretary said the matter will be looked into.
Voting in the 13th National Parliamentary Election and referendum began nationwide at 7:30am and will continue until 4:30pm through ballot papers in transparent ballot boxes.
Polling held in 299 parliamentary constituencies, excluding Sherpur-3, where the Election Commission canceled the election following the death of a Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami candidate.
A total of 51 political parties participated in the election, with 2,034 candidates in the race, including 275 independent contenders.
The BNP fielded the highest number of candidates — 291 — contesting with the paddy sheaf symbol. Islami Andolon Bangladesh nominated 258 candidates with the hand fan symbol, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has 229 candidates with the Dari Palla (scales) symbol, and the Jatiya Party has 198 candidates with the plough symbol. The National Citizen Party has fielded 32 candidates with the water lily bud symbol.
The total number of registered voters stood at 127,711,899, including 64,825,154 male voters, 62,885,525 female voters, and 1,220 transgender voters.
Jhalakathi-1 had the lowest number of voters at 228,431, while Gazipur-2 has the highest at 804,333.
There were 247,482 polling booths in 42,779 polling centers across the 299 constituencies. Around 800,000 officialswere engaged in election duties, while nearly 900,000 members had been deployed to maintain law and order.
A total of 55,454 observers from 81 domestic organizations, along with around 500 foreign observers, were monitoring the election.
