Tangail-8 by-polls end, counting on

Elections officials have started counting after by-polls for the Tangail-8 constituency ended on Saturday.

No untoward incident has been reported so far.

Tight security was in place to ensure a free, fair and trouble-free election.

Voting started at 8am and ended at 4pm on Saturday.

The seat, covering Basail and Sakhipur, fell vacant after the death of Awami League lawmaker Shaukat Momen Shahjahan on Jan 20, barely two weeks after the Jan 5 parliament elections.

Around 1,000 personnel of RAB, police, BGB, Ansar and other law enforcing agencies have been deployed in the constituency for the by-polls.

Five candidates are contesting the elections.

Ruling Awami League's official candidate is former MP Shahjahan’s son Anupam Shahjahan Joy.

But a party dissident Md Malek Mian is also in the fray, defying the AL's central leadership.

Jatiya Party’s Sadek Siddiqui is in the fray, with independent candidates Abu Sayed Azad and Liakat Ali.

The EC cancelled the nomination of the independence war hero Kader Siddiqui, who is the chief of the Krishak Sramik Janata League.

He is said to have defaulted on repayment of bank loans -- a charge Siddiqui denies.

Siddiqui moved the High Court but it turned down his appeal.

The Liberation war hero , whose brother LatifSiddiqui is a senior minister in the present government, appears to be bitter about that.

The constituency has 3,07,382 registered voters but how many of them turned up to vote was not yet clear.