Shawdesh desk:

Voting in By-elections to six parliamentary seats that fell vacant following the resignation of Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmakers in December began on Wednesday morning and the voting continued amid different incidents.

The six constituencies are — Thakurgaon-3, Bogura-4 and 6, Chapainawabganj-2, 3 and Brahmanbaria-2.

Our Chapainawabganj correspondent reported that a bomb disposal unit of the Rapid Action Battalion recovered a cocktail from Nawabganj District Ideal High School centre.

Chapanawabganj police acting officer-in-charge KM Alamgir Jaham told new age that the cocktail was recovered in an abandoned state from the centre at about 10:30am.

Besides, a chase and counter-chase took place between supporters of two candidates at the same centre at about 9:00am.

A scuffle took place between the supporters of independent candidate Samiul Haque Liton and Awami League-backed candidate Abdul Wadud at the polling station, triggering the chase and counter-chase, said the police officer.

Our correspondent in Brahmanbaria reported that voting in the by-election for Brahmanbaria-2 (Sarail-Ashuganj) constituency was going on peacefully amid low voter turnout till filing of this report in the afternoon.

Voting in the polls began at about 8:30am and would continue till 4:30pm, said SM Asaduzzaman, joint secretary of the Election Commission.

Electronic voting machines were being used in the by-elections, but no CCTV cameras had been installed in the polling centers, he added.

Forty aspirants are vying in the six constituencies for MP post.

A total of 22,55,217 people are expected to exercise their franchise in 867 polling centers.

Meanwhile, the government on Tuesday announced a public holiday on Wednesday in the election areas on the occasion of the by-elections.

On December 11, 2022, five out of seven BNP lawmakers submitted their resignations to the speaker of the parliament Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury as part of their anti-government movement with a 10-point demand that includes the dissolution of parliament.

The MPs who resigned in person are Md Zahidur Rahman of Thakurgaon-3, Md Mosharof Hosen of Bogura-4, Gulam Mohammad Siraj of Bogura-6, Md Aminul Islam of Chapainawabganj-2, and Rumeen Farhana, from the women’s reserved seats.

Md Harunur Rashid of Chapainawabganj-3, who was in Australia at the time, and Abdus Sattar Buiyan of Brahmanbaria-2, who was ill, were unable to resign in person and instead did so via email.

Later, the parliament secretariat confirmed the resignation of Sattar after talking with him, and the resignation of Harun was accepted as he submitted his resignation again after returning home.