Voting to reserved seats for women on 14 March

The Election Commission (EC) has set 14 March for voting to the 50 reserved seats for women in the 12th Parliament.  

Besides, the commission decided to hold upazila parishad elections in four phases, said EC Secretary Md Jahangir Alam.  

According to the schedule, the nomination submission to the election commission will be held from 9am to 4pm on 18 February while scrutiny of nominations on 19 and 20 February. The last day for candidates to withdraw their candidature is 25 February, while symbol allocation will be done on 27 February. 

The decisions were made at a meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal on Tuesday.

As per the existing law, the parliamentary seats reserved for women are distributed to the parties in proportion to the seats they have won in the general elections.

The MPs elected in the general parliamentary seats cast ballots for these reserved seats.

In this year's 7 January elections, the Awami League secured 223 seats, the Jatiya Party 11, the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSad), the Workers Party, and the Kalyan Party won one each, and independent candidates bagged 62 seats.

According to the proportional allocation of parliamentary seats, the Awami League, along with the independent election winners, is getting 48 seats, while the Jatiya Party is getting two.

Upazila polls in four phases

The EC also announced four-phase elections for upazila parishads. 

In the first phase, voting to elect upazila parishad chairman, vice chairman, and female vice chairman will be held on 4 May, EC Secretary Md Jahangir Alam said.

The second, third, and fourth phases of voting will be held on 11, 18 and 25 May.

Further details on these elections will be released on the website of the Election Commission next week, he added

There are 495 upazila parishads in the country. The last upazila parishad elections started on 10 March 2019 and the five-phase polls ended in June that year.