The Election Commission has already completed all the preparations to smoothly hold the election, said senior election officer of Chattogram M Munir Hossain Khan.

In the election, the ballots will be cast through electronic voting machines (EVMs) from 9am to 5pm without any break.

Munir said mock voting was arranged at all the 170 centres to remove fears from voters’ minds about EVMs.

Six candidates, including Awami League’s Moslem Uddin Ahmed and BNP’s Abu Sufian, are contesting the by-polls.

The four other contestants are Chairman of Bangladesh Nationalist Front (BNF) SM Abul Kalam Azad, Syed Mohammad Farid Uddin of Islamic Front Bangladesh, Bapon Dasgupta of NAP and independent runner Mohammad Emdadul Haque.

Meanwhile, five platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and six platoons of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) have been deployed in the election areas along with regular law enforcers for maintaining the law and order.

The Chattogram-8 constituency is comprised of five wards (ward No 3-7) of Chittagong City Corporation and Boalkhali upazila except Sripur and Kharandip unions.

There are some 4.76 lakh (475,996) voters in the constituency.

Moin Uddin Khan Badal, the executive president of a faction of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Jasod), was elected MP with Awami League's symbol 'Boat' in the last general election.

He died at a hospital in Bangalore, India on November 7 last at the age of 67.