<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>The Election Commission today withheld the by-elections to Gaibandha-5 constituency due to "malpractice".</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal announced the decision on Tuesday afternoon.</div><div><br></div><div>Earlier, the Election Commission suspended voting at 51 polling centres over irregularities.</div><div>Meanwhile, four candidates, including Jatiya Party (JP), have boycotted the Gaibandha-5 by-polls alleging vote rigging through electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voters being thrown out of the centres.</div><div><br></div><div>They announced their withdrawal from the election in a joint press conference today (12 October).</div><div><br></div><div>The four boycotting candidates are - HM Golam Shaheed Ranju from Jatiya Party, Jahangir Alam, independent candidate Nahiduzzaman Nishad and Mahbubur Rahman.</div><div><br></div><div>The voting in the election began on Tuesday morning using electronic voting machines (EVMs).</div><div><br></div><div>Voting has started at 8:00 am, which was supposed to continue until 4:00 pm at 145 polling stations in Fulchhari and Saghata Upazilas. The constituency has 339,434 voters from 17 unions.</div><div><br></div><div>The Gaibandha-5 constituency fell vacant on July 23 following the death of deputy speaker Fazle Rabbi Miah.</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/kh</div>