In Photos: Voting underway in Dhaka-18 by-polls

Voting in the by-elections to Dhaka-18 parliamentary constituency is underway through electronic voting machines amid low turnout.

A total of six candidates are contesting in the elections. The contenders are Awami League nominated Md Habib Hasan, BNP nominated SM Jahangir Hossain, Jatiya Party's Nasir Uddin Sarkar, Gano Front's Kazi Md Shahidullah, Bangladesh Congress's Omar Faruk and PDP's Mobibullah Bahar.

Starting at 8am, the voting will continue till 4pm.

However, BNP candidate SM Jahangir Hossain has claimed that his polling agents were kicked out from several centres by ruling party men and law enforcers. 

He made the claim after casting his vote at Uttara’s Malekabanu Adarsha Bidyaniketan centre at around 9:45am.

Dhaka-18 constituency fell vacant following the death of Awami League lawmaker Advocate Sahara Khatun.

According to EC sources, the constituency consists of wards 1, 17, and 43 to 54 of Dhaka North City and the airport area.

The total number of polling stations is 217 and the number of polling booths is 1,353. The total number of voters is 577,188. Among them, 296,135 voters are male and 281,053 are female.

In order to maintain law and order, additional magistrates and law enforcement personnel have been deployed in the electoral areas.