Voting to 2nd phase of UZ polls continues peacefully

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DHAKA, March 18, 2019 (BSS) – Voting to 116 upazilas in 16 districts in
2nd phase of 5th upazila parishad elections is continuing amid huge
enthusiasms and peaceful atmosphere.

The polling began at 8 am and will continue till 4pm without any break.

In the second phase, a total of 377 candidates for chairman post, 539 for
vice vice-chairman and 394 for women vice-chairman are contesting the polls
as some 1,79,09,006 voters will exercise their franchise in 7,039 polling
stations.

The districts where polling is being held are Thakurgaon, Rangpur, Gaibandha,
Dinajpur, Bogura, Naogaon, Pabna, Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Gopalganj, Faridpur,
Chattogram, Rangamati, Khagrachhari, Bandarban and Cox’s Bazar.

Meanwhile, 23 chairman, 13 vice-chairman and 12 women vice-chairman have
already been elected uncontested in the 2nd phase of upazila polls in absence
of any valid candidates to fight against them.

“All kinds of preparations have been taken to hold the second phase of
upazila polls in peaceful atmosphere,” said Helaluddin Ahmed, Secretary of
the Election Commission (EC) Secretariat.

The government has declared public holiday for today in the respective
upazilas on election, said the EC official while talking to BSS.

All kinds of polls campaign ended on Saturday midnight, they said.

The voters are very happy as the polls are being taken place with the
party symbols, the EC officials said.

A large number of security personnel, including police, Rapid Action
Battalion (RAB), Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Coast Guard, have been
deployed in the election areas since Saturday as they will remain deployed
till Wednesday.

Besides, a judicial magistrate was deployed in each upazila and an executive
magistrate for every three union parishads for five days to punish polls code
violators.

A security team comprising of 14-16 members drawn from police, Ansar and
VDP is guarding each polling station today.

The first-phase of upazila polls was held on March 10 in 78 upazilas.

Earlier, the EC declared 2nd phase of upazila polls schedule on February
7.

The third phase of upazila polls is scheduled to be held on March 24 and
the fourth phase on March 31.

The first upazila election was held in 1985, while the following three
were held in 1990, 2009 and 2014.

The 4th upazila election was arranged in six phases after the 10th
parliamentary elections in January 2014.