DHAKA: Voting of the sixth and final phase of Union Parishad (UP) has ended and counting is underway on Saturday afternoon (June 4).

Earlier, the voting in 698 UPs across the country started at 8:00am and continued till 4:00pm uninterruptedly.

Election Commission (EC) public relations officer SM Asaduzzaman told banglanews that over one crore voters exercised their franchise rights in 6,287 polling centers in the final phase of UP polls.

Meanwhile, EC sources said that ruling Awami League (AL)-nominated 25 candidates have already been elected uncontested.

Besides, all candidates in two UPs -- Korerhat of Mirsarai upazila in Chittagong and Ramchandrapur of Muradnagar in Comilla -- have been elected uncontested.

Fourteen political parties are participating in the polls and the number of chairman aspirants is 1,487 and independent candidates are 1,185.

Around three thousand candidates are vying for chairman positions while around 10,000 candidates are for councilor positions.

Around 5,000 candidates are contesting for reserve councilor posts in the polls.

A general holiday has been announced in the polls areas.

EC has deployed over two lakhs law enforcers including RAB, BGB and Ansar members.

BDST: 1657 HRS, JUN 04, 2016
SR/RR/SMS

**Final phase UP polls begins