The second elections to 57 district councils began on Monday morning, with voters in 57 districts choosing their representatives through secret ballots.

The voting began at 9:00 am and will continue till 2:00 pm without any break under the supervision of the deputy commissioners who are acting as returning officers, according to the Election Commission.

Voting in the Zila Parishads is being held at 925 booths in 462 centres across the country while 60,866 voters are expected to cast their votes.

No voting is being held in three districts in the Chattogram Hill Tracts while elections in Chapainawabganj and Noakhali were suspended due to court orders.

All representatives of Feni and Bhola have been elected uncontested, said Election Commission joint secretary SM Asaduzzaman.

Of 57 districts, 26 zila parishads found just one candidate for the chairman post, all backed by the ruling party, as the party rebels withdrew their candidature in the districts on the final day of the withdrawal of nomination papers.

The 26 districts with single chair candidates are — Gopalganj, Jhalakathi, Tangail, Thakurgaon, Naogaon, Narayanganj, Feni, Barguna, Bagerhat, Bhola, Madaripur, Munshiganj, Moulvibazar, Lakshmipur, Lalmonirhat, Shariatpur, Sirajganj, Sylhet, Cumilla, Kushtia, Jamalpur, Dhaka, Noakhali, Pabna, Pirojpur and Barishal.

Asaduzzaman said that the commission completed all its preparations to hold the polls peacefully and set up a monitoring cell in the EC’s Nirbachan Bhaban at Agargaon to monitor the polling booths through CCTV cameras.

The EC official also said that 65 general members and 18 reserved members for women were also elected uncontested in different districts.

Most parties, including the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, are not contesting in the polls.

According to the Zila Parishad Act, the elected representatives of the city corporations, upazila parishads, union parishads, and municipalities are the voters in the zila parisahd polls.

The law stipulated that the zila parishad elections should be held 180 days before the expiry of a parishad’s tenure.

The elections have, however, been delayed due to the enactment of the Zila Parishad (Amendment) Act 2022.

Amid the boycott by the main opposition BNP and the Jatiya Party, ruling AL-backed candidates became chairs in 25 districts in the first zila parishad polls in 2016, when AL leaders running as independent candidates won in 13 districts and AL leaders won unopposed in 21 districts.