59 districts ready for polls

The ballot papers have reached the concerned returning officers without any trouble," EC's Senior Assistant Secretary Farhad Hossain told bdnews24.com.

He said these papers had been sent from Dhaka on Friday and Saturday.

Several other voting centres around Dhaka will get ballot papers by Saturday night, he said.

Voters of only 146 constituencies will be able to exercise their franchise as in rest of the 154 constituencies only single candidates filed nominations for the 10th parliamentary polls.

"We had everything ready but this time we faced more trouble in sending ballot papers," said the Senior Assistant Secretary.

"Everything had to be rearranged since many had won uncontested," he said.

The BNP-led Opposition has boycotted the polls. It has been pressing for suspending the election schedule demanding a non-party government to supervise the polls.

Returning officers are sending reports to the EC Secretariat of their preparations to organise the Jan 5 polls.

Voters will be able to cast their votes from 8am to 5pm on Jan 5.

No votes for half a million new voters

Nearly half a million first-time voters will not be able to vote in the next parliamentary polls as most of the constituencies have witnessed uncontested win, according to the EC.

There are over 48.3 million voters in the 154 constituencies and over 43.6 million in rest of the 146 constituencies.

EC Deputy Secretary Mihir Sarwar Morshed told bdnews24.com: "There were over 81.3 million voters in the 2008 national polls. This time the number is over 91.9 million.

"Half of the new voters are not getting a chance to vote this time. The rest half are lucky, they will have the experience of casting vote," he said.