Voting in the Chattogram-10 by-polls is underway Sunday. The turnout of voters was low in the morning, and no untoward incident has been reported in the election as of filing this report at 9:30am.
The Election Commission (EC) is observing the Chattogram-10 by-polls through CCTV cameras from the control room in Dhaka.
The EC has set up 1,563 CCTV cameras at 156 centres to monitor the elections, said EC sources.
Farhad Ahmad Khan, joint secretary at the election management section of the EC, said voting is underway using electronic voting machines (EVMs).
Election monitoring is being done by installing two CCTV cameras in each polling station.
Voting in the Chattogram-10 constituency started at 8am, and will continue until 4pm without any break.
In the Chattogram-10 constituency, six candidates are contesting. The seat comprising Double Mooring, Pahartali and Halishahar fell vacant following the death of MP Dr Afsarul Amin on June 2 this year.
Awami League-backed candidate Md Mohiuddin Bachhu is contesting with the symbol ‘boat’, Jatiya Party’s Md Samsul Alam with ‘plough’, Trinaomool BNP’s Dipak Kumar Palit with ‘golden fibre’, Bangladesh Sanskritik Muktijot’s Rashid Miah with stick, and independent candidates Md Arman Ali with balloon and Manjurul Islam Bhuiyan with rocket.
At each polling station, three members of the police, two members of the Ansar will remain deployed during the election. Moreover, 10 ansar members and a village police will also perform duty.
At vulnerable stations, one more police member and two village police personnel will remain deployed compared to the non-vulnerable ones.
Eight mobile teams and four mobile striking teams from the police, four teams from Rapid Action Battalion, and four platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) will remain on-duty in the election.
Two judicial magistrates will remain deployed to conduct mobile court along with 12 other executive magistrates.
A total of 4,88,633 voters are expected to cast their votes in the by-polls.
