DACCA: The voters will go to polls tomorrow morning [Jan 17] to elect 30 members of the National and Provincial Assemblies in seven districts including the cyclone and tidal wave affected areas of four coastal districts — Bakerganj, Pataukhali, Noakhli and Chittagong. Polling for 27 seats of the National and Provincial Assemblies in the disaster areas will be held simultaneously. Of the total 30 seats three are for the Provincial Assembly....

The polling centres will remain open for eight hours between 8-30 a.m. and 4-30 p.m. without break. In all 141 candidates of different political parties, including independents are contesting against 30 nominees of the Awami League, which has already become singular majority party in both National and East Pakistan Assemblies in the nation’s general elections held in December last year. The Awami League won 151 National Assembly seats out of 153 ... and 268 Provincial Assembly seats out of 279....

The elections to the nine National Assembly and 18 Provincial Assembly seats were delayed following the century’s worst calamities in the coastal belts.... Election to the three Provincial Assembly seats in Dacca, Tangail and Dinajpur districts were postponed till tomorrow due to deaths of the candidates.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2021