The Election Commission has decided to implement different polling hours for elections held in summer and winter every year.
Under the new system, polls will run from 9:00am to 5:00pm in elections held between May and October and from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm in elections held between November and April.
The decision to vary the timing came amid allegations of ballot-box stuffing at several voting centres on the eve of the last Upazila elections.
Prior to the changes, voting usually took place from 8:00am to 4:00pm throughout the country.
On June 24, voting in the by-election of the Bogura-6 parliamentary constituency started at 9:00am and continued until 5:00pm. The same polling schedule was in effect for the fifth phase of Upazila election.
The EC decided to start the voting an hour later than usual as it found the timing convenient.
Field-level officials were directed to create awareness on the issue, said EC's Additional Secretary Mokhlesur Rahman.
“The EC decided on the different voting hours considering the length of the day,” he said.
It takes eight hours to complete the voting process, including the counting of ballots , the announcement of the poll outcome and security issues, he explained. Therefore, the polling hours ran between 8:00am and 4:00pm all this while, bdnews24.com reported.
“But EC decided to conduct polls from 9:00am to 5:00pm in summer as the days are longer. In that case, the ballots can be sent to the centres in the morning of the polls rather than the night before.”
But voting will continue to be held from 8:00am to 4:00pm for the rest of the year, the additional secretary said.
Accordingly, a letter outlining the change was sent to returning officers.
“For the convenience of the people, the voting in all kind of elections (local government councils and others) held in summer (May–October) will take place from 9:00am to 5:00pm,” the letter said.
It also instructed officials to disseminate the decision through public notices.
The EC expects to draw a larger turnout of voters and reduce any scope of poll-rigging under the new schedule.
