Bogura-6 and Sherpur-3 by-polls on April 9, no referendum: EC Secretary

Election Commission Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed has announced that there will be no referendum in the elections for the Bogura-6 and Sherpur-3 constituencies. He shared this information with journalists after a meeting with law enforcement agencies at the Election Building in Agargaon, capital, on Wednesday, March 11.

Akhtar Ahmed said voting in these two constituencies will be held on April 9. Polling will take place from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm. He informed that although a referendum was held earlier in the Bogura-6 constituency, the referendum result will not affect the election in Sherpur-3. Therefore, voting will be conducted directly through the election process this time.

He further stated that election preparations will proceed according to the deployment plan used for the national election held on February 12. However, additional resources may be added if necessary. The use of body-worn cameras and security apps may also be increased based on recommendations from the Returning Officer or law enforcement agencies.

Regarding the law and order situation, the EC Secretary said the Ansar force will be deployed for eight days this time as well. Additionally, BGB, army and other forces will perform their duties on the ground according to their scheduled timeframes. Electoral Inquiry Committees and Executive Magistrates have already begun their work, and no objectionable information has been received so far.

He said no appeals have been received yet from those whose nomination papers were rejected. Therefore, the final number of candidates will be known after the deadline for withdrawal of candidature.

Regarding postal ballots, Akhtar Ahmed informed that overseas voters will also be included in this process. Both OCV (Overseas Citizen Voter) and ICV (In-Country Voter) systems have been arranged. OCV ballots for overseas voters will start being sent from March 12, and ICV voting will be held on March 23 and 24.

Additionally, arrangements will be made to preserve centre-based video footage of the election, which can be used for any future investigation or review if necessary.

Regarding result publication, he said the same result management system used previously will be employed. Since there are only two seats and one constituency has about 150 centres, results will not take long to be published. However, the timing of result publication will partly depend on the counting of postal votes.