40,000 polling centres to be okayed on Sept 6

Kabir Humayun: The Election Commission is mulling to finalise over 40,000 polling stations across the country on September 6.
As the national election inches closer, the commission has already asked its field-level officials to send lists of possible polling stations to the EC Secretariat after disposing of complaints by August 30, reports Asian Age.
An official at the EC Secretariat preferring anonymity said there may be more than 40,000 polling stations and 200,000 polling booths in all the 300 constituencies against some 104.14 million voters across the country.
The next national election will be held in the last week of December next, the EC said yesterday.
Meanwhile, election officers working at the district level have sent the lists of some 40,657 possible polling stations to the EC Secretariat, he added.
On August 5, they published the draft polling stations to receive complaints over the polling stations till August 19 and dispose those of by August 30.
As per the EC’s roadmap for the 11th general election, the name of polling stations will be published in a gazette notification just 25 days before the polls.
And the lists of the polling stations will be sent to registered political parties after the announcement of the election schedule.
The number of polling stations was 37,707 against 91.96 million voters in the 10th national election held in 2014, while it was 35,263 against some 81 million voters in the 9th national election held in 2008.
The Election Commission usually fixes a polling station against 2,500 voters on average.
Election Commissioner Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury said the process of fixing election centres is now underway. “The list of polling station will be finalised in early September,” he told UNB.