Bangladesh is holding crucial parliamentary elections today, 18 months after a caretaker government took over after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year regime fell in widespread nationwide protests.
The Election Commission has adopted elaborate security measures and deployed nearly one million security personnel – the largest in the country’s election history. The 13th parliamentary elections are held simultaneously with a referendum on a comprehensive 84-point reform package.
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The contest is mainly between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its former ally Jamaat-e-Islami, in the absence of Hasina’s now-dissolved Awami League. The interim government of Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus dissolved the Awami League last year and barred it from contesting elections.
When does voting start?
Voting began simultaneously in 299 parliamentary constituencies across the country at 7:30 am and will continue till 4:30 pm. Voting in one precinct was canceled due to the death of a candidate.
A total of 1,755 candidates from 50 political parties and 273 independents are running in the elections. BNP fielded the highest number of 291 candidates. 83 women are candidates.
“You should all exercise your respective voting rights consciously…,” Senior Adviser Yunus said in a statement on Wednesday.
Voting will take place in 42,659 centers. Official figures showed that first-time voters made up about 3.58 percent of the nearly 127 million voters.
Opinion polls have shown the BNP as the front-runner, with its chief Tarique Rahman, back from 17 years in exile in the UK, leading the charge to form the next government.
Who has the right to vote in Bangladesh today?
Only Bangladeshi citizens who are over 18 years of age on election day can vote, provided their names are on the final voter list compiled by the Election Commission.
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Electoral eligibility is governed by the Electoral Roll Act, 2009, which states that a voter is entitled to obtain an identity card of a specified class following prescribed procedures and payment of required fees. The Election Commission of Bangladesh issues only one national identity card to each citizen. In order to obtain an ID card, every citizen must register.
This time, the country introduced postal voting for expatriates. For the first time, nearly 800,000 overseas Bangladeshis who have registered with the electoral body will be able to vote through the IT-based postal voting system.
Bangladesh Voter Eligibility Rules
The qualifications for voter registration are set out in Article 122 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and Section 7 of the Electoral Rolls Act 2009.
-Parliamentary elections will take place on the basis of adult suffrage.
– A person who –
(a) is a citizen of Bangladesh;
b) is not younger than eighteen years;
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c) is not declared to be of good character by a competent court;
(d) is or is deemed by law to be a resident of that constituency; and
You should all exercise your respective voting rights consciously…
(e) has not been convicted of any offense under the Bangladesh Collaborators (Special Tribunals) Ordinance, 1972.