Photo: BSS

DHAKA, Sept 10, 2026 (BSS) - The by-election to the Thakurgaon-1 parliamentary constituency will be held on October 29.

Election Commission (EC) Secretariat Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed announced the election schedule at a briefing at the Election Commission Building in Agargaon here today.

He said the seat fell vacant as the lawmaker elected from the constituency in the 13th Jatiya Sangsad (JS) election has assumed the office as the President of Bangladesh.

According to the schedule, September 27 has been fixed as the last date for filing nomination papers, while scrutiny of the nomination papers will be held on September 29.

Candidates can appeal against any decision of the returning officer from September 30 to October 4, and the appeals will be disposed of on October 6, he said.

October 7 has been fixed as the last date for withdrawal of candidature, while electoral symbols will be allocated to the candidates on October 8.

Voting will be held from 8:00am to 4:00pm on October 29 using transparent ballot boxes, Akhtar said.

He said the constituency currently has 515,525 voters. Of them, 507,203 were registered for the February 12 election, while 8,322 new voters were added between November 1, 2025 and July 31, 2026.

The number of polling stations and booths will remain unchanged at 185 and 989 respectively.

A total of 3,152 election officials will be deployed, including 185 presiding officers, 989 assistant presiding officers and 1,978 polling officers.

The district election officer will serve as the returning officer, while the upazila election officers of Thakurgaon Sadar, Ruhia and Baliadangi will serve as assistant returning officers.

On postal voting, Akhtar said 386 expatriate voters from 33 countries registered for out-of-country postal voting in the previous election. This time, the EC has set a target of registering up to 500 expatriate voters.

For in-country postal voting, preparations have been made for 5,000 ballots for government employees, election officials, inmates and Ansar members, compared with 4,045 in the previous election.

Referring to the February 12 election, Akhtar said voter turnout in Thakurgaon-1 was 76.49 percent.

After excluding 1.93 percent invalid votes, the BNP candidate, now the President of the Republic secured 61.03 percent of the votes, while the Jamaat-e-Islami candidate got 36.03 percent and the Islami Andolan Bangladesh candidate one percent.