Counting of votes began this afternoon after polling in the 13th National Parliamentary Election and the referendum ended peacefully at 4:30pm.
Election Commission (EC) Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said that voter turnout stood at around 48 percent nationwide as of 2:00pm.
Voting started at 7:30am across 42,779 polling centres in 299 constituencies. A total of 12,77,11,793 voters were registered, including 6,48,25,361 men, 6,28,85,200 women, and 1,232 third-gender voters.
Top leaders of major political parties cast their votes in the morning. BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman voted at Gulshan Model High School and College around 9:30am, while Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Dr Shafiqur Rahman voted at Monipur High School and College.
Witnesses reported tight security at polling centres in the capital and other parts of the country. Polling was held in 299 out of 300 constituencies, as voting in Sherpur-3 was cancelled following the death of a candidate.
According to EC sources, nearly 900,000 law enforcement personnel were deployed to maintain order and prevent violence. In addition, 2,098 executive magistrates and 657 judicial magistrates were assigned election duties. The magistrates began their responsibilities on Tuesday for a five-day period.
The election mainly saw competition between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, and is expected to mark the end of the 18-month tenure of the interim government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus.
Earlier, Akhtar Ahmed said 50 political parties contested the polls, with 2,028 candidates, including 273 independents. BNP fielded the highest number of candidates at 291. A total of 83 female candidates were in the race.
The EC said around 800,000 election officials were engaged in polling duties. They included 69 returning officers, 598 assistant returning officers, 42,779 presiding officers, 247,482 assistant presiding officers, and 495,964 polling officers. About 15,000 officials handled postal voting.
Security deployment included 103,000 army personnel, 8,500 navy and air force members, 37,453 Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) troops, and 3,585 Coast Guard members. The number of police personnel stood at 187,603, while 9,349 RAB members were deployed. The largest force came from Ansar, with 567,868 members.
Election monitoring was conducted by 55,454 domestic observers from 81 local organisations. The number of foreign observers was 394. Nearly 200 foreign journalists arrived in Bangladesh to cover the election and referendum.
Among international observers, 80 represented global organisations, while others came from different countries, including independent European observers.