Polling for the Thakurgaon-1 parliamentary constituency by-election is scheduled to take place on October 29.

Election Commission Secretariat Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed unveiled the electoral timeline during a media briefing hosted on Thursday at the Election Commission Building situated in Agargaon.

He noted that the parliamentary seat became vacant after the candidate victorious in the 13th Jatiya Sangsad election assumed the duties of the President of Bangladesh.

Under the announced calendar, September 27 serves as the final deadline for submitting nomination papers, with the evaluation of these documents slated for September 29.

Contestants may challenge determinations made by the returning officer between September 30 and October 4, with hearings and resolutions for these appeals scheduled for October 6, he explained.

October 7 marks the final date for candidate withdrawals, while electoral symbols are designated for contenders on October 8.

Balloting will run continuously from 8 am to 4 pm on October 29 utilizing transparent ballot boxes, Akhtar stated.

The senior secretary reported an eligible voter population of 515,525 within the constituency, noting that 507,203 citizens were previously enrolled for the February 12 polls, supplemented by 8,322 newly registered voters added between November 1, 2025, and July 31, 2026.

Infrastructure allocations remain steady, featuring 185 polling stations and 989 individual booths.

Administrative deployment will comprise 3,152 election personnel, including 185 presiding officers, 989 assistant presiding officers, and 1,978 polling officers.

The district election officer has been appointed as the returning officer, supported by the upazila election officers of Thakurgaon Sadar, Ruhia, and Baliadangi functioning as assistant returning officers.

Regarding postal ballots, Akhtar shared that 386 diaspora voters residing across 33 nations registered for international postal voting during the preceding election, while the Commission has established a target to register up to 500 expatriate voters for this cycle.

Provisions for domestic postal voting have been organized to accommodate 5,000 ballots earmarked for public servants, election staff, incarcerated individuals, and Ansar personnel, marking an increase from the 4,045 ballots allocated during the prior election.

Recalling the patterns of the February 12 vote, Akhtar mentioned that voter participation in Thakurgaon-1 reached 76.49 percent.

Following the exclusion of 1.93 percent rejected ballots, the BNP candidate—who currently holds the office of the President of the Republic—captured 61.03 percent of the valid votes, whereas the Jamaat-e-Islami contender secured 36.03 percent and the candidate representing Islami Andolan Bangladesh garnered one percent.