3rd phase of upazila polls ends, vote counting underway

The third phase of the sixth Upazila Parishad elections ended in 87 upazilas at 4pm on Wednesday and the vote counting is underway.

The voting began at 8am and continued till 4pm without any break.

A total of 1,196 candidates were in the electoral race against 261 posts of 87 upazila parishads.
The candidates included 397 chairman contenders, 456 vice chairman and 299 women (reserved) vice chairman contestants.

According to the factsheets provided by the Election Commission (EC), over 20.8 million voters — 1,06,40,347 males, 1,02,34,723 females and 114 transgender persons — are registered under 7,450 polling stations in the 87 upazilas.

On April 18, the EC announced the date of the third phase of upazila election in 112 upazila parishads on May 29.

The voting in 22 upazilas was suspended due to Cyclone Remal, one upazila (Raipura in Narsingdi) for the death of a candidate and another upazila for legal complexities. Among those, the election to 20 upazilas, which were suspended due to the Remal will be held on June 9.

Besides, all the candidates against three posts — chairman and two vice chairman posts — were already elected uncontested finding no rival contender against their respective posts in Bhandaria upazila of Pirojpur.

The fourth phase of voting is scheduled for June 5.