Candidates must stop electioneering by Tuesday

Electioneering by candidates in the 13^th National Parliament Election and Referendum, scheduled for 12 February, will conclude at 7:30 am on Tuesday, exactly 48 hours before voting begins.

The campaign, which began on 22 January, will end in line with electoral rules requiring all political parties and candidates to halt campaigning two days prior to polling.

Election Commission (EC) Secretariat Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed confirmed that campaign activities will cease at 7:30 AM on 10 February, maintaining the mandatory 48-hour silence period before polling starts.

The 13^th JS polls and referendum will be held on Thursday, with voting taking place simultaneously from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm using ballot papers and transparent ballot boxes across 299 parliamentary constituencies. The EC recently cancelled voting in Sherpur-3 following the death of a Jamaat-e-Islami candidate, reducing the total number of constituencies from 300.

Ballot papers have already been dispatched to returning officers in 49 districts, with the remainder expected to arrive by Sunday, according to EC officials.

A total of 12,771,189 voters are eligible to cast their ballots, including 6,482,515 men, 6,288,525 women, and 1,220 members of the hijra community. The constituency with the fewest voters is Jhalakathi-1, with 228,431 voters, while Gazipur-2 has the largest, with 804,333.

Fifty-one political parties are contesting the election, with 2,034 candidates in the race, including 275 independents. The BNP has fielded the highest number of candidates, with 291 running under its paddy sheaf symbol. Dhaka-12 has the highest number of candidates, with 15, while Pirojpur-1 has the lowest, with just two.

Voting will take place at 42,779 polling centres across the constituencies, with 247,482 polling booths set up. Around 800,000 officials will carry out election duties, while nearly 900,000 law enforcement personnel will ensure security.

A total of 55,454 observers from 81 local organisations will monitor the election, including 7,997 central observers and 47,457 constituency-level observers. Approximately 500 foreign observers will also be present, according to Election Commissioner Brig Gen Abul Fazal Md. Sanaullah (Retd).