The elections in 717 Union Parishad (UP) was held amid some irregularities.The voting began around 8am on Tuesday and continued till 4pm without any break.In the first phase of the elections, 3034 for chairman posts, 25847 for member posts and 7575 for reserved-seat women posts contested. After municipal elections, this is the maiden UP-level battle of the ballots between the two major political parties – ruling Awami League and BNP – since the 2008 general elections.BNP, which boycotted the last general election in January 2014 and faced a huge defeat in municipal elections last year, fears harassment of its party men and rigging by the ruling party men.