Balloting on in 12 upazilas

Balloting is underway by and large peacefully in a dozen Upazila (UZ) Parishads in eight districts of the country on Monday. The voting opened in 746 polling centres of 12 UZs simultaneously at 8:00am, and will continue till 4:00pm without any break. The UZs are: Kaunia, Gangachhara, Pirgachha and Sadar upazilas of Rangpur district, Kamarkhand upazila of Sirajganj district, Basail of Tangail, Sadar upazila of Gazipur, Kalukhali of Rajbari, Taltali of Barguna, Adarsha Sadar and Sadar Dakkhin upazilas of Comilla district and Brahmanbaria’s Bijoynagar. Besides, by-polls to chairman post of Tarakanda UZ of Mymensingh will be held on Monday. Three chairman candidates are in the race for the post. The vote is being held to the 12 UZs in the last phase of the staggered polls as part of the multiple-phase marathon local government elections which began earlier this year. The Election Commission (EC) has completed all the necessary preparations for the voting in the 12 UZs last week. “Some 2,000 members of law enforcement agencies, including 7,000 police personnel have been deployed in 12 UZs to ensure security in 746 poling stations. Five armed police members will guard each polling station. A total of 179 candidates are contesting the last phase of the staggered elections for 36 posts. Of them, 61 are chairman candidates and 69 vice chairman contenders, and 49 vice chairman candidates for the post set aside for women. There are 18,45,133 voters – 9,15,087 males and 9,30,046 females – who can exercise their franchise in 4930 booths of the 746 polling stations, according to a news agency.