44 chairmen, 3 mayors from ruling party elected unopposed

Elections for the first phase of 160 Union Parishads (UP) and nine municipalities for the sixth phase, which were postponed due to the corona pandemic, will be held tomorrow.

However, before the election, 44 Awami League (AL) nominated chairman and three mayoral candidates have been elected without contest.

The highest number of UP chairmen elected uncontested is from Bagerhat. In the district, AL candidates in 39 Ups, out of 66, have no rivals. As the main opposition party BNP is not in the field due to boycotting the elections, the rebel candidates of AL are the rivals of the party-nominated candidates in the remaining 26 Ups of the district.

Besides, four AL candidates have been elected in Sandwip of Chattogram and one candidate in a union in Khulna.

Besides, the AL mayoral candidates from Langalkot in Cumilla, Boalkhali in Chattogram and Kabirhat in Noakhali have been elected without contest among the nine municipalities.

Voting will be held in 160 unions of 23 upazilas of six districts and nine municipalities of eight districts from 8am to 4pm tomorrow.

The UP elections will be held in 66 unions of Bagerhat, 34 of Khulna, 21 of Satkhira, 14 of Cox's Bazar, 13 of Noakhali and 12 of Chattogram.

The municipal elections will be held in Debiganj in Panchagarh, Nawapara in Jashore, Bhanga in Faridpur, Langalkot in Cumilla, Sonagazi in Feni, Kabirhat in Noakhali, Boalkhali in Chattogram, and Maheshkhali and Chakaria in Cox's Bazar.

It is to be noted that voting will be held in about 4,500 UPs in the country in several phases. On 3 March, the Election Commission announced the schedule for the elections of 361 UPs in the first phase. Voting was later postponed due to the deteriorated pandemic situation. After that, elections were supposed to be held in those 371 UPs on 21 June, but on that day elections were held in 204 UPs.

After announcing the election schedule, the EC postponed elections in the remaining 167 UPs as the corona situation deteriorated in the border districts. Out of the 167 postponed UPs, polling is being held in 160 UPs tomorrow.

Besides, the nine municipal elections of the sixth phase being held tomorrow were also scheduled to be held on 21 June. It was postponed on 10 June due to the corona situation.

Meanwhile, Election Commission Secretary Humayun Kabir Khondarkar expressed hope that tomorrow's election will be free, fair and acceptable.

He expressed this hope at a press conference held at the media centre of Nirbachan Bhaban at Agargaon in the capital on Sunday afternoon.

The EC secretary said that electoral materials have reached the respective districts. Members of the law enforcement agaencies have been deployed in the field.

He said 81 executive and nine judicial magistrates including members of RAB and BGB have been deployed.