By-election for Mishti’s vacant reserved seat set for November 12

The Election Commission (EC) has announced the schedule for a by-election to reserved women’s parliamentary seat No. 23, which fell vacant following the resignation of former MP Ferdousi Ahmed Mishti. Voting will take place on November 12.

The schedule was announced in a notification signed by Akhtar Ahmed, senior secretary of the Election Commission Secretariat, on Monday (October 12). It was issued under Section 6 of the Jatiya Sangsad (Reserved Women’s Seats) Election Act, 2004.

According to the schedule, nomination papers must be submitted to the returning officer’s office at Nirbachan Bhaban in Agargaon between 9am and 4pm on October 26.

Scrutiny of nomination papers will begin at 10am on October 27. Appeals against decisions made during scrutiny can be filed between 9am and 4pm on October 28, and will be disposed of from 11am on October 29.

The deadline for withdrawing candidacies is 4pm on November 1. Election symbols will be allocated to candidates on November 2.

Voting will be held uninterrupted from 8am to 4pm on November 12, the EC said.

Mishti resigned from her reserved parliamentary seat on October 1 at the direction of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman. She submitted her resignation to the speaker at the Parliament building at around 1.45pm that day.

Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Machud said on October 1 that the by-election would be held within three months of the publication of the gazette declaring the seat vacant. Under the proportional representation (PR) system, only a candidate from the BNP-led alliance would be eligible to contest, he said.