<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Voting in the by-election for Gaibandha-5 constituency, which was suspended due to irregularities, is underway with participation of voters in a festive mood.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Voting started at 8 am and will continue till 4:30 pm. No untoward incident was reported till the filing of this report around 10 am.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">People were seen standing in long queues since morning, ignoring the cold.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The presence of female voters is comparatively higher than their male counterparts.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A total of 3,39,743 people are expected to exercise their franchise in 145 polling centres. Of them, 1,70,160 are females and 1,69,583 are male.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">District Election Officer and Returning officer Abdul Motaleb said that of the 145 polling centres, 72 are consider "important" while 32 are counted as "most important".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All preparations have been taken to hold a smooth, free and fair election, he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Elections will be monitored through CCTV cameras as done before.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rab, police, BGB and Ansar members will remain deployed to hold the election peacefully, said Motaleb.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The candidates of the Gaibandha-5 by-election are: Awami League candidate Mahmud Hasan Ripon, Jatiya Party candidate AHM Golam Shaheed Ranju, Bikalpa Dhara candidate Advocate Jahangir Alam and independent candidate Syed Mahbubur Rahman.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The constituency consists of Saghata and Phulchhari upazilas.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On October 12 last year, the Election Commission (EC) suspended the by-election due to “rampant irregularities” on the election day and later the commission fixed January 4 for holding the polls.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Following the death of Gaibandha-5 lawmaker and Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Fazle Rabbi Miah on July 22, 2022, it became a constitutional obligation to hold election for the parliamentary seat by October 20, 2022. Accordingly it was scheduled for October 12.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A three-member committee was formed to look into the election irregularities on October 12 last year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Following the recommendations of the committee, the Election Commission took punitive actions against 133 officials including an additional deputy commissioner, five sub-inspectors and returning officer of the election. UNB</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>