Dhaka: Voting begins for Narayanganj City Corporation Election on Thursday morning as people will see the battle of ballots mainly between the candidates of ‘Boat’ and ‘Sheaf of Paddy’ symbols for the first time.

The voting started from about 8:00am and will continue till 4:00pm without any break.

A total of 195 candidates are contesting for 37 posts. Of them, seven are contesting for the mayoral post and 156 are contesting in 27 wards while 38 are contesting for nine women reserved seats.

A total of 4, 74,931 voters is expected to cast their ballots under 174 poling centers. Of them, 2, 41, 514 are male and 2, 37,878 are female voters.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Election commissioner Mohammad Shahnewaz said that the election commission (EC), completed all preparations for holding the polls in a free, fair and peaceful manner.

Returning officer M Nuruzzaman Talukdar said that all electoral materials have already been sent to the respective voting centers in City Corporation.

Nine magistrates will work with mobile and striking force involved maintaining law and orders while 14 judicial magistrates will work at instant summary trials for election crimes.

Besides, 55 out of 66 polling stations are vulnerable in Siddhirganj thana, while 31 out of 45 stations in Sadar and 11 out of 15 polling stations are vulnerable in Fatullah thana.

A 24-member security team comprising seven policemen with arms, three Battalion Ansar men with arms, two embedded Ansar with arms and 12 embedded Ansar/VDP members with sticks are protecting each vulneRABle polling centre, while a 22-member security team is guarding each normal polling station.

A total of 8,000 law enforcers, including 4,000 police members and 3,000 Ansar members, are ensuring security in the city.

Around 22 platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), three platoons of coast guards, 36 teams comprising of police, APBn and Ansar, 27 teams of RAB have been working as mobile or reserve forces in the election since Tuesday.

Besides, 36 executive magistrates and 14 judicial magistrates are there to conduct mobile court to check polls code violations and vote fraud.

Seven mayoral candidates are in the election race. Of them, Dr Salina Hayat Ivy and Advocate Sakhawat Hossain Khan are considered as frontrunners as they are contesting the election for the mayoral post with symbols ‘boat’ and ‘paddy sheaf’ – the election symbols of two major political parties -- Awami League and BNP.

The five other mayoral contenders are Mahbubur Rahman Ismail of Bangladesh Biplabi Workers Party, Kamal Prodhan of LDP, Maulana Md Masum Billah of Islami Andolan Bangladesh, Mufti Azharul Haque of Islami Oikyajot, Md Rashed Ferdous of Bangladesh Kalyan Party.

Besides, 156 general councillor candidates are contesting the election in 27 wards, while 38 councillor contenders in nine reserved seats.

A total of 144 election observers, including two foreigners, took permission from the EC to watch the election.

All the mobile and striking forces including police, APBN, ANSAR, RAB, Coast Guard and BGB will continue their work till 23 December.

During the election, 174 presiding officers, 1,304 assistant presiding officers and 2,608 poling officers will perform duties.