Vote Counting Begins After Peaceful Polls

The counting of votes began as the voting in the 13th National Parliamentary Election and the Referendum concluded across the country in a festive and peaceful atmosphere.

Vote counting began shortly after polling ended at 4:30pm in the 13th National Parliamentary Election and the referendum, which concluded without major incidents.

According to Election Commission (EC) Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed, voter turnout stood at around 48 percent as of 2pm. Final turnout figures are expected after compilation of data from all constituencies.

Voting started at 7:30am at 42,779 polling centres across 299 constituencies. The EC had suspended voting in the Sherpur-3 seat following the death of a candidate. A total of 127,711,793 voters were eligible to cast their ballots, including 64,825,361 men, 62,885,200 women and 1,232 third-gender voters.

Leaders of major political parties cast their votes in the morning. BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman voted at a polling centre in Gulshan, while Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Dr Shafiqur Rahman cast his ballot at Monipur High School and College.

Tight security was maintained nationwide throughout the day. Nearly 900,000 members of law enforcement agencies were deployed to maintain order and prevent violence. In addition, 2,098 executive magistrates and 657 judicial magistrates were assigned to oversee election duties for five days starting Tuesday.

The election mainly featured BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami as key contenders and is expected to mark the end of the 18-month tenure of the interim government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus.

Fifty political parties took part in the polls with a total of 2,028 candidates, including 273 independents. BNP fielded the highest number of candidates at 291. A total of 83 women contested the election.

Around 800,000 officials were engaged in election duties, including returning officers, assistant returning officers, presiding officers and polling officers. An additional 15,000 officials handled postal voting.

Security forces included members of the army, navy, air force, police, RAB, BGB, Coast Guard and Ansar.

The elections were monitored by 55,454 local observers from 81 organisations, alongside 394 foreign observers. Nearly 200 foreign journalists were also present to follow the polls and the referendum process.