Voting in the by-election for Brahmanbaria-2 constituency began this morning amid thin presence of voters.

The constituency fell vacant following the resignation of one of the six BNP lawmakers in December last year.

The constituency consists of Sarail and Ashuganj upazilas with 3,73,319 voters.

Voting started at 8:30am and will continue till 4:30pm. No untoward incident was reported till the filing of this report around 9:00am.

While visiting the Sarail Annada Govt High School and Uchaliyapara Govt Primary School polling centres in Sarail upazila of the district around 9:00am, our correspondent found no voters. There were only agents, law enforcement personnel and election officials at the polling stations.

A total of nine votes were cast in eight booths of the Chunta Dakhhin Govt Primary School till 9:00am. Till the same time not a single vote was cast in seven booths of Annada Govt High School Centre.

There are more than 6,000 voters under the two centres.

The candidates of the Brahmanbaria-2 by-election are: former BNP lawmaker and expelled BNP leader Ukil Abdus Sattar Bhuiyan, Jatiya Party candidate Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani, Zaker Party candidate Jahirul Islam Jowel and independent candidate, former BNP leader Abu Asif Ahmed.

On December 10, five MPs from the BNP resigned from parliament as part of their ongoing anti-government movement. Sattar left the party the next day.

Later, the Election Commission set February 1 to hold polls for the vacant seats.

Rab, police, BGB and Ansar members will remain deployed to hold the election peacefully, said Returning Officer and Brahmanbaria Deputy Commissioner Md Shahgir Alam.