Friday, April 26, 2024
No irregularities have been detected yet in the polling stations during the Gaibandha by-election, said Election Commissioner Rashida Sultana.
She said this while observing the election on the CCTV cameras from the Election Commission office at Agargaon in the capital on Wednesday morning.
She also said that the voter turnout was low due to chilly weather.
"We can see the voting in the CCTV cameras. So far, there is no problem at the polling centers," she said.
EC IDEA Project DPD(Communications) Squadron Leader Shahriar Alamg told reporters that the election is being monitored directly from Dhaka through a total of 1,242 CCTV cameras.
The voting is being monitored by CC cameras from 8 am at the EC control room on the fifth floor of the Election Commission.
Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal, Election Commissioners Ahsan Habib Khan, Md. Alamgir, Rashida Sultana and Anisur Rahman are monitoring the polls.
Voting ends
The by-election to the Gaibandha-5 constituency, which was suspended due to irregularities, was held Wednesday.
Voting started at 8:30am and continued till 4pm without any break. A public holiday was declared in two upazilas (Saghata-Phulchhari) in the district to enable the voters to exercise their rights.
A total of 3, 39, 743 voters were expected to cast their votes at 952 booths of 145 centres under 17 unions of the upazilas to elect MP for the constituency.
The polling was monitored through CCTV cameras as before while voting was held through electronic voting machines (EVMs).
On October 12 last year, the Election Commission (EC) suspended the by-election due to “rampant irregularities” on the election day and later the commission fixed January 4 for holding the polls.
Following the death of Gaibandha-5 lawmaker and deputy speaker of parliament Fazle Rabbi Miah on July 22, 2022, it became a constitutional obligation to hold an election for the parliamentary seat by October 20, 2022. Accordingly, it was scheduled for October 12.
A three-member committee was formed to look into the election irregularities on October 12.
Following the recommendations of the committee, the Election Commission took punitive actions against 133 officials, including an additional deputy commissioner, five sub-inspectors and returning officers of the election.
The candidates of the Gaibandha-5 by-election are — Awami League candidate Mahmud Hasan Ripon, Jatiya Party candidate AHM Golam Shaheed Ranju, Bikalpa Dhara candidate Advocate Jahangir Alam, and independent candidate Syed Mahbubur Rahman.
The police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), and Ansar members were deployed to hold the election peacefully.
