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Netrakona set for by-polls today

2.74 lakh voters to make choice from 7 candidates

FRoM MoRsHED ALi KHAN and Jahangir Alam in Netrakona
Netrakona-3 by-polls start today amid tight security, with seven candidates vying for the seat that fell vacant at the death of a ruling BNP lawmaker about three months ago.
As many as 2,73,471 voters, 1,33,440 of them female, are expected to cast votes during the polls from 8:00am to 4:00pm in 124 polling centres in Atpara and Kendua upazilas.
Netrakona Deputy Commissioner Hossain Jamil, also returning offi-
cer, said all preparations were complete to ensure free and fair bypolls.
The Election Commission (EC) has deployed a 3,136-strong team consisting of police, BDR and ansars at the polling centres and strategic points of the constituency.
An unspecified number of military personnel will be patrolling the 500-square kilometres of Netrakona-3. Six mobile courts will be operating in the areas, while each polling centre will have a magistrate, said the district administrator.
More than 100 observers and as many local and national media people are covering the event that preceded a high-pitched campaign.
"All arrangements are in place for a trouble-free election," said Jamil. Several hundred vehicles have been requisitioned and all private hotels and guesthouses have been booked, he said.
The Netrakona seat fell vacant after Nurul Amin Talukdar, the BNP lawmaker, died. About 100 lawmakers,
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including top leaders of the main opposition party AL and ruling BNP are now in the constituency trying to boost the morale of their activists, said party sources.
The seven candidates for the election are Khadija Amin, widow of Amin Talukdar, from the four-party alliance; M Jubed Ali from the Awami League (AL), Ali Osman Khan from the Jatiya Party (Ershad); Abdul Ali from the Jatiya party (Monju); Abu Zafar Sabat from Krishak Sramik Janata League; Mohammad Sadek from Krishak Sramik Mukti Andolon; and Abdul Wahab, an independent.
The unofficial results might be declared late tonight, as results from 18 remote centres would take a long
time to reach the returning officer, who send the results to the EC in Dhaka.
The final hours in the run-up to the election coincided with a deputy minister's allegation against activists of the AL's student front of attacking their rivals.
Deputy Minister of Industries Abdus Salam Pintu yesterday alleged at an unscheduled press conference in Netrakona that Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists attacked a group of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) activists in Atpara, seriously injuring one of them. In another incident, the BCL men chopped off the finger of a JCD activist, the deputy minister alleged.