Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gestures after casting her vote in the morning during the general election in Dhaka, Bangladesh, December 30, 2018. (Photo/Agencies)
Nationwide voting opened Sunday morning in Bangladesh's general elections to elect hundreds of representatives to parliament amid reports of stray violence.
At least two people were reportedly killed in election-related violence on Sunday morning in two southeastern Bangladesh districts.
A police official was not immediately available to confirm the deaths reported from Lakshmipur and Chattogram districts in southeastern Bangladesh.
Stray incidents of violence have also been reported from some parts of the country where around 1,861 candidates are contesting for 299 out of the 300 directly-elected parliamentary constituencies.
Election at a constituency has been postponed due to death of a candidate. There are over 104 million registered voters in the country.
The voting started at 8:00 a.m. local time on Sunday at around 40,000 polling stations nationwide and will continue without a break until 4:00 p.m.
The counting of votes will be done on the spot soon after polling is concluded. Nearly 1 million security personnel, including army, police and the Border Guard Bangladesh, have already been deployed to ensure security in the election.
In order to facilitate the voting process, a public holiday has been declared across the country.
The Bangladeshi parliament comprises a total of 350 members, of which 50 seats are reserved for women who are elected later by the 300 directly-elected members on the basis of procedure of proportional representation in the parliament through single transferable vote.
In Bangladesh, a party can only form the government if it manages to clinch 151 seats in total.
In the elections, as always Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League-led Grand Alliance will be locking horns with former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies, which boycotted the 2014 elections.
Hasina is seeking a third five-year term in the Muslim-majority South Asian nation of about 165 million people.
