DHAKA: Ballot counting started soon after voting had ended in 616 Union Parishads (UPs) across country on Saturday (April 23) afternoon amid tight security.

Earlier, the third phase of UP voting began at 8:00am and continued till 4:00pm uninterruptedly.

Election Commission (EC) said of the 616 UPs, 591 Ups started voting for chairman aspirants as AL-nominated 25 candidates have already been elected unopposed.

Some 10,980,355 people were expected to cast vote in third phase UP elections.

BNP has no candidate in 61 UPs in Saturday polls, according to EC statistics.

Fourteen political parties vied in the polls. The number of chairman aspirants was 2,672. Of them, 1,487 were from the political parties while 1,185 were independent candidates.

Earlier, elections to 725 UPs were held in first phase on March 22 and 639 UPs in the second phase on March 31.

Meanwhile, the EC fixed May 7 as the date of the fourth phase of UP polls. Some 743 UPs will go into the elections then.

Besides, polls in 733 UPS will be held in the fifth phase on May 28 and 700 more UPs will go into polls in the sixth phase in June.

BDST: 1733 HRS, APR 23, 2016
SR/SMS