On Sunday morning, the 12th Jatiya Sangsad (JS) elections got underway. Starting at 8:00 a.m., voting will take place nonstop at 261,912 polling places spread across 42,024 voting locations nationwide until 4:00 p.m.
The Election Commission reports that 11,96,89,289 voters—6,76,09,741 men, 5,89,18,699 women, and 849 transgender people—will cast ballots to choose 299 out of 300 members of parliament.
The commission earlier postponed the elections to Naogaon-2 due to independent candidate Aminul Islam’s death.
There are 1,970 candidates running in the polls, comprising 1,534 members of 28 political parties and 436 independents.
Of the candidates, 122 are from the National People’s Party (NPP), 13 are from the Jatiya Party (JP), 10 are from Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh, 135 are from Trinamool BNP, 66 are from Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JASAD), 266 are from the ruling Awami League (AL), and 265 are from Jatiya Party (JaPa).
According to BSS, there are 90 female candidates running in the polls, including independents and members of political parties as well as 79 members of ethnic minorities and other groups.
About 800,000 members of law enforcement agencies, including 182,091 from police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), 1,155 platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) members, 505,788 Ansar and VDP members and Coast Guard personnel, have been tasked with ensuring overall security during the elections across the country.
