Rangpur-3 by-election voting ends

Voting in the Rangpur-3 by-polls ended on Saturday afternoon without a report of any unfavorable incident.

As many as 442,072 voters – 221,310 men and 220,762 women – were expected to exercise their franchise from 9 am to 5 pm without any break to elect a new representative, reports UNB.

But the turnout percentage was not immediately clear. The counting of votes will begin shortly.

The constituency fell vacant after the death of Jatiya Party chairman HM Ershad on July 14. The Election Commission (EC) announced the schedule for the by-polls on September 1.

Six candidates are competing for the seat but it will be a close contest among Jatiya Party’s Rahgir Al Mahi alias Saad Ershad, BNP’s Rita Rahman and independent candidate Hossain Mokbul Shahriar Asif.

The other contestants are – NPP’s Shafiul Alam (mango), Gano Front’s Kazi M Shahidullah Bayazid (fish) and Khilafat Majlish’s Towhidur Rahman Mandal (wall clock).

The ruling Awami League withdrew its candidates in support of the Jatiya Party contestant.

Rangpur Regional Election Officer and Returning Officer of the by-election GM Sahatab Uddin said they took all preparations to hold free, fair and credible balloting.

He said 3,244 election officials, including 175 presiding officers, 1,023 assistant presiding officers, and 2,046 polling officers, worked at the polling stations.

The EC identified 49 out of the total 175 polling centers as important ones, he added.