National election: 345 complaints submitted to EC, 144 against field officials

Ahead of the upcoming 13th national parliamentary election and referendum, the Election Commission (EC) has received 345 complaints so far.

Md Saiful Islam, member-secretary of the Central Coordination Committee for the referendum and 13th parliamentary election, shared the information today (5 February).

According to a report, 144 complaints have been lodged against field-level officials performing election duties, while 201 relate to violations of conduct rules and other issues.

The official added that between 8 January and 4 February, executive magistrates filed 212 cases related to violations of the electoral code of conduct and imposed fines totaling Tk22,98,750.

The Electoral Inquiry and Adjudication Committee also completed summary proceedings for 15 complaints regarding various offences, imposing fines of Tk1,05,500.

Special initiative to collect results from 108 remote polling stations

The EC will use the wireless systems of law enforcement agencies to collect results from 108 remote polling stations in the hill districts of Rangamati, Khagrachhari, and Bandarban.

To implement this, the commission sent letters to the returning officers of the three districts on Wednesday. Under this system, results will be collected from 20 polling stations in Rangamati, 46 in Bandarban, and 42 in Khagrachhari.

According to the EC's latest data, there are 42,779 polling stations nationwide, with one polling station assigned for every 3,000 voters on average. The total number of polling booths is 2,47,482, and 7,85,225 officials will oversee the election process.

Currently, Bangladesh has 12,77,11,739 registered voters, including 6,48,25,361 men, 6,28,85,200 women, and 1,232 Hijra voters.