Thakurgaon: The by-election for the Thakurgaon-1 parliamentary constituency is set to take place on October 29. Election Commission (EC) Secretariat Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed announced the schedule during a briefing at the Election Commission Building in Agargaon.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the seat became vacant after the lawmaker elected from the constituency in the 13th Jatiya Sangsad (JS) election assumed the office of the President of Bangladesh. The timeline for the election process includes September 27 as the last date for filing nomination papers, with scrutiny scheduled for September 29. Candidates can appeal the returning officer's decisions from September 30 to October 4, and these appeals will be resolved by October 6. The deadline for withdrawing candidacy is October 7, and electoral symbols will be distributed on October 8.
Voting will occur from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm on October 29, using transparent ballot boxes. The constituency has 515,525 voters, with 507,203 registered for the February 12 election and an additional 8,322 new voters registered between November 1, 2025, and July 31, 2026. There will be 185 polling stations and 989 booths, with 3,152 election officials, including presiding, assistant presiding, and polling officers, overseeing the process.
The district election officer will act as the returning officer, supported by the upazila election officers of Thakurgaon Sadar, Ruhia, and Baliadangi as assistant returning officers. For postal voting, 386 expatriate voters from 33 countries registered in the previous election, with a target of up to 500 registrations this time. Preparations include 5,000 ballots for in-country postal voting, catering to government employees, election officials, inmates, and Ansar members.
Reflecting on the February 12 election, Akhtar noted a voter turnout of 76.49 percent in Thakurgaon-1. After accounting for 1.93 percent invalid votes, the BNP candidate, now the President, secured 61.03 percent of the votes, while the Jamaat-e-Islami candidate received 36.03 percent, and the Islami Andolan Bangladesh candidate garnered one percent.