Bangladesh: Voting begins in first national election since Sheikh Hasina’s ouster

Voting began on Thursday morning for Bangladesh’s 13th national election, the first since former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government was ousted from power following a mass uprising last year.

Polling opened at 7.30 am local time and will close at 4.30 pm local time. Counting will begin soon after, with early trends expected around midnight and final results likely by Friday morning, Reuters quoted Election Commission officials as saying.

Nearly 128 million people are registered to vote, 49% of them women. However, only 83 female candidates are contesting. Almost half of the electorate is between 18 and 35 years old, many of them first-time voters, Reuters reported.

Voting is taking place in 299 constituencies. Polling in one constituency in the northern district of Sherpur was postponed because a candidate died while the campaign was underway, Al Jazeera reported.

More than 90% of the country’s 42,779 polling centres are under CCTV coverage, with drones and body-worn cameras deployed for the first time in a national vote, Al Jazeera quoted Election Commissioner Abul Fazal Mohammad Sanaullah as saying.

Nearly 958,000 security personnel have also been deployed nationwide.

Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin on Thursday said that the election is progressing in a free and fair manner so far, The Daily Star reported.

“A few untoward incidents were reported outside polling centres, which are not significant,” Uddin was...

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