Election Commission (EC) Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed on Thursday expressed satisfaction over the peaceful completion of the parliamentary by-election to the Thakurgaon-1 constituency, as no reports of untoward incidents had been received throughout the day.
“We have completed a good election in a peaceful environment with everyone's cooperation,” he said at a post-balloting briefing at the Election Commission Building in the city’s Agargaon area in the afternoon.
The EC secretary said the commission had not received any reports of untoward incidents from anywhere since the morning.
“I believe you also have no such information that could make us concerned,” he said, thanking everyone for their cooperation in holding the election peacefully.
In response to a question about whether the EC was satisfied with the polls, Akhtar Ahmed said: “Surely satisfied. Is there any reason not to be satisfied?”
Asked whether the EC had passed the test set by the 11-party alliance, which had described the by-election as a test for the commission before deciding whether to participate in the upcoming local government elections, he said, “If we had not passed, would we be briefing you?”
He said the voting in the by-election began at 8am and ended at 4pm.
All polling stations completed voting, and no voters were waiting to cast their ballots at the end of polling.
The EC secretary said: “Voters exercised their franchise in a festive atmosphere.“
The Thakurgaon-1 constituency, covering Thakurgaon Sadar, Ruhia and Bhulli upazila, fell vacant after Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir assumed office as president.
BNP-nominated candidate Mirza Faisal Amin, who is the younger brother of President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, and Jamaat-e-Islami candidate Delwar Hossain are considered frontrunners in the by-election.
The Thakurgaon-1 constituency has a total of 185 polling stations. Of them, 113 are in Thakurgaon Sadar upazila, 33 in the newly formed Ruhia upazila and 39 in Bhulli upazila.
The constituency has 515,853 voters, including 257,219 men, 258,630 women and four third-gender voters.
