By Habibur Rahman

DHAKA, Feb 10, 2026 (BSS) – The much-awaited 13th Jatiya Sangsad (JS) elections and the referendum will be held on Thursday (February 12)with voting is scheduled from 7:30am to 4:30pm across 299 constituencies nationwide.

The Election Commission (EC) has announced that polling in Sherpur-3 constituency will remain suspended following the death of a candidate. 

Preparations for the remaining constituencies have been finalized, with logistical arrangements and security measures in place to ensure a smooth and orderly conduct of the vote.

Election Commissioner Md Anwarul Islam Sarker told BSS that all preparations of the commission for smooth voting have already been completed. “Now there is no preparation left except for the voters to go to the polling stations and exercise their right to vote,” he added.

On security measures, the commissioner mentioned the highest number of law enforcement personnel in the country’s history has been deployed to ensure peaceful elections, saying “Such a large-scale deployment has never been seen before.” 

EC Secretariat Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said there is no reason for any concern over voting. He urged voters to go to polling centres without fear and exercise their voting rights.

An EC circular said reports on the election atmosphere, law and order situation and voting rate will be collected from returning officers every two hours during polling. 

After completion of vote counting, results will be published from the “Preliminary Unofficial Result Collection and Dissemination Centre” based on information received from presiding officers. 

The activities of this centre will begin at 7:30am on polling day and continue until unofficial results are received.

A total of 12,77,11,899 voters are expected to cast their votes in this election. EC data showed that of the total voters, 6,48,25,154 are male and 6,28,85,525 female, while 1,220 belong to the third gender.

The EC said 51 political parties are taking part in the election and the total number of candidates is 2,034, including 275 independent candidates. 

BNP has fielded the highest number of candidates with 291 contestants. Besides, the highest numbers of 15 candidates are contesting in Dhaka-12 constituency while the lowest number of two candidates is contesting in Pirojpur-1 constituency.

Voting will be held in 247,482 polling rooms at 42,779 polling centres across 300 parliamentary constituencies nationwide. Nearly 800,000 election officials and about 900,000 law enforcement personnel will be deployed to conduct and secure the polls.

The EC said that among 55,454 observers from 81 local organisations, 7,997 will observe centrally and 47,457 locally on a constituency basis, while around 540 foreign observers will be present.

Meanwhile, to ensure a free, fair and peaceful election, the EC imposed a ban on the stay of outsiders in election areas from 7:30am on February 10 to 4:30pm on February 13. 

During this period, only residents or voters of the respective areas will be allowed to stay there.

In addition, under Article 78 of the Representation of the People Order, 1972, all kinds of public meetings, rallies or processions have been banned from 7:30am on February 10 to 4:30pm on February 14.