Voting for Khulna and Barishal City Corporation elections started from 8am this morning and will continue till 4pm.

More than eight lakh voters of the two cities will elect their preferred candidates for the post of mayor and ward councillor.

The Election Commission is directly monitoring the voting situation in Khulna and Barishal City Corporation elections through  CCTV footage from the control room installed in the election building.

"All steps have been taken to make the election fair. We hope that polling will be completed peacefully and fairly," Khulna City Corporation Election Returning Officer MD Alauddin said.

In the Khulna City Corporation election, 136 candidates are contesting for the post of councillors in 31 general wards and 39 candidates for the post of women councillors in 10 reserved wards, along with 5 mayoral candidates.

The 5 candidates competing for the post of mayor in this election are Talukdar Abdul Khalek from Bangladesh Awami League, Md Shafiqul Islam Madhu from Jatiya Party, Md Abdul Awal from Islami Andolan Bangladesh, Zaker Party candidate M Sabbir Hossain and SM Shafiqur Rahman as an independent candidate.

There are 1,732 polling booths in 289 polling stations in 31 wards of the city. A total of 2,310 CC cameras have been installed for round-the-clock monitoring of polling stations.

5 lakh 35 thousand 529 voters will exercise their right to vote in this election. Among them 2 lakh 66 thousand 696 female voters and 2 lakh 68 thousand 833 male voters.

A total of 4 thousand 820 policemen and 3 thousand 467 Ansar members are on duty for the election. Apart from this, BGB and RAB members have also been deployed.

"Initially 7 policemen and 12 Ansars have been deployed in each important centre and 7 policemen and 10 Ansars have been deployed in other ones. Apart from this, 71 mobile patrol teams, 20 additional mobile teams, striking force and standby force are on the ground in each police station," Khulna Metropolitan Police (KMP) Commissioner Masudur Rahman Bhuiyan said.

The number of voters in Barishal City is 274,995. Among them, 138,071 are female voters and 136,924 are male voters.

126 polling stations have been set up in the city. There are 116 candidates for the councillor post. There are 42 reserved women councillor candidates.

Seven people are contesting for the post of mayor in the Barishal city elections. They are Abul Khair Abdullah (Bangladesh Awami League), Md Kamrul Ahsan (Independent) Mufti Syed Md Faizul Karim (Islami Andolan Bangladesh), Md Ali Hossain Howlader (Independent), Mizanur Rahman Bachchu (Zaker Party), Md Iqbal Hossain (JatiyaParty) and Md Asaduzzaman (Independent).