Voters are exercising their franchise in the election to Cumilla City Corporation on Wednesday.The voting began at 8am and will continue until 4pm without any break.A total of 2,29,920 voters will exercise their voting right through EVM in 105 centres. There are 640 booths in 105 polling stations.Five candidates are vying for the office of mayor. Read: Sakku’s hat-trick or Rifat’s first?It is the third election of the Cumilla City Corporation after its formation in 2011 while the first under the new Election Commission, which will be conducted through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in its entirety. Law enforcement agencies have mounted tight security measures to ensure peaceful holding of much talked-about polls, said superintendent of Cumilla Police Faruk Ahmed on Tuesday. The whole city has been brought under security blanket, he said while speaking at a press briefing on law and order situation ahead of the polls at Language Movement Hero Drirendanath Datta Stadium. Read: Security tightened ahead of Cumilla city polls The law enforcement agencies have done whatever is needed to ensure security and at least 75 check-posts were installed in the city, he said. Over 3,600 members of law enforcement agencies have already been deployed in the field to maintain law and order, he added. The last Cumilla city election was held on Mar 30, 2017. BNP leader Monirul Haque Sakku was elected mayor for the second term.  

Voting for the fifth phase of the union parishad (UP) polls is underway in Bangladesh, with over 36,400 candidates in the fray for different posts. Polling began in 708 UPs across 95 upazilas in 48 districts at 8am Wednesday and will continue till 4pm. A total of 36,457 candidates, including 3,278 contenders for the post of chairman, are contesting in the countrywide fifth-phase UP election. Some 48 chairman candidates have already been elected unopposed. Also, 33 member candidates for reserved seats and 112 for member posts have been elected unopposed in different UPs. There are a total of 14.2 million under 7,137 polling stations in 708 UPs. Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are being used in 40 UPs. The Election Commission on November 27 last announced the 5th phase polls schedule for 707 UPs across 48 districts. Later, another UP was incorporated in the fifth-phase election. Also read: UP-polls violence: 1 succumbs to injuries in Sirajganj, 1 arrested

Voting in the 5th phase election to 29 municipalities in 20 districts is underway with the use of electronic voting machines (EVM) on Sunday.

Balloting at 55 municipalities in the fourth phase elections began on Sunday with participation of political parties in the mayoral race of the local bodies.

Voting ended in Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) polls on Wednesday afternoon amid various allegations of election irregularities and a series of violent incidents and clashes, leaving two people dead.

Voting in the second phase elections to 60 municipalities concluded on Saturday amid stray incidents of violence and irregularities.

Balloting in 24 municipalities under first phase municipality elections is underway on Monday.