The long-awaited by-election for the Sherpur-3 constituency, postponed during the 13th National Parliament election, will be held on Thursday, with authorities completing distribution of ballot papers and election supplies to polling centres.
From Wednesday afternoon, the handover of ballot papers and various election materials from the offices of Assistant Returning Officers in Sribardi and Jhenaigati upazilas to Presiding Officers began, officials said.
The constituency, comprising 17 unions and one municipality across the two upazilas, has 4,13,377 registered voters who will cast their ballots at 128 polling centres with 751 booths.
Three candidates are contesting the seat: BNP’s Mahmudul Haque Rubel, Jamaat’s Masudur Rahman, and Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (Maksbadi)’s Mizanur Rahman.
The District Election and Returning Officer said all preparations have been completed to ensure a free, fair, impartial, and peaceful election.
Security has been significantly bolstered with the deployment of 16 platoons of BGB, 14 teams of RAB, 26 mobile police teams, 14 executive magistrates, 18 Election Commission observers, two judicial magistrates, and three joint district judges from the Election Inquiry Committee.
Several army teams will also remain in the field. At each polling centre, five to six police personnel and 12 Ansar and VDP members will be deployed.
Of the 128 polling centres, 27 have been designated as highly important, 32 as important, and 69 as general centres.
The election was originally postponed on February 12 following the death of Jamaat candidate Nuruzzaman Badal. The new schedule set voting for April 9.
