Today is a day of liberation, a day of great joy: CA Yunus
Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus today (12 February) said that the election day marks "a day of liberation and a day of great joy for the nation".
He cast his vote at the Gulshan Model High School and College polling centre in the capital's Gulshan-2 around 10am.
Talking to reporters afterwards, Yunus urged all citizens to take part in the festive polls and referendum.
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"Today's vote is important also for the referendum. Through the referendum, the entire country of Bangladesh will see transformation," he added.
Voting in the 13th national election and referendum across the country began at 7:30am, though voters had been arriving at polling centres since dawn.
Polling will continue until 4:30pm across 299 parliamentary constituencies. In total, 42,779 polling centres are operational, containing 247,482 voting booths.
A total of 50 political parties are participating in the election, with 2,028 candidates contesting — 1,755 representing political parties and 273 running as independents.
Among them, 83 are women candidates, including 63 from political parties and 20 independents.
A total of 127,711,893 voters are eligible to cast their ballots in the 299 constituencies. Of these, 64,825,361 are men, 62,885,200 are women, and 1,232 are registered as hijra voters.
Polling in Sherpur-3 has been cancelled following the death of a candidate from Jamaat-e-Islami, leaving 299 constituencies holding elections simultaneously.
