The curtain is set to fall on election campaigning in 234 municipalities across the country on Monday midnight, 32 hours before balloting.
No one can call or join any rally, or organise or attend any public rally or procession or showdown in the election areas from Monday midnight to Friday midnight in the election areas. Besides, more than 1 lakh members of law enforcement agencies, including police, RAB, Ansar, BGB and Coast Guard as well as some 1200 magistrates will remain deployed in the municipalities for four days from Monday to maintain law and order and election-friendly atmosphere.
The Election Commission on Sunday issued a notification for deployment of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in all municipalities but six ones. Though the EC earlier planned to deploy BGB members in only 102 municipalities, it finally took the decision to keep the paramilitary force alongside members of regular law enforcement agencies in all municipalities, said an official at the EC Secretariat.
Each municipality with over 1 lakh voters will get two platoons of BGB (35 members in each platoon) while one platoon-plus BGB will be posted in each municipality with 50,000 to 1 lakh voters, one platoon in each municipality having 10,000-50,000 voters and less than one platoon in other municipalities each having less than 10,000 voters, he said.
A platoon of Coast Guard will be on election duty from Monday in each of the six municipalities-Muladi, Mehendiganj, Patharghata, Ramgati, Hatia and Sawndip. At least 234 mobile teams of RAB will remain on patrol, while 234 other teams comprising the members of the police, the APBn and the Ansar will act as striking force for the four days. Besides, 81 other teams of RAB will also act as striking force in 81 municipalities.
A total of 1203 magistrates – 238 judicial magistrates and 965 executive magistrates – will conduct mobile courts to punish polls code violation from December 28 to December 31 in the municipalities.
At least five magistrates, including a judicial one will remain in each municipality.
The EC on Sunday withdrew two officers in-charge (OCs) of Jagannathpur of Sunamganj and Hatia of Noakhali and warned OC of Phulpur of Mymensingh for their alleged biased role in the election.
Earlier, the EC withdrew five other OCs of Matlab Uttar of Chandpur, Kalkini of Madaripur, Kulaura of Moulvibazar, Satkania of Chittagong and SI of Madhabdi police camp of Narsingdi for their partial role in the election. The Commission on Sunday ordered two MPs-Dhirendra Debnath Shambhu (Barguna-1) and Showkat Hasanur Rahman Rimon (Barguna-2)- to leave the municipal election areas in Barguna district, said an official at EC Secretariat.
The EC order came following a complaint that the two MPs have allegedly been participating in election activity for several days in their respective constituency, though they are not allowed to do so as per the election code of conduct, he added. According to EC’s statistics, 12,000 candidates – 945 mayoral, some 8,600 general councillor and over 2,500 women councillor contenders in reserved seats – are contesting the polls for 3,158 posts that include 234 mayoral, 727 women (reserved seats) councillor and 2,182 general councillor posts in the election. Nearly 71 lakh voters will be allowed to exercise their franchise through 3552 polling stations in the election.
Of the polling stations, 1184 ones are vulnerable according to reports of the intelligence agencies.
A 20-member security team will guard each vulnerable polling station while a 19-member one for every normal polling centre. There will be five police members with arms, two Ansar members with arms and 12 Ansar/VDP members with sticks in the 19-member security team, while there will be six police members with arms instead of five in case of 20-member team. The Commission already sent over 2.1 crore ballot papers and other election materials, including translucent ballot boxes and irremovable ink to the district election offices.
There will be a restriction imposed on the movement of motorcycles for four days from December 27 midnight in the election areas. Besides, the restriction will be imposed on plying of all types of motorised vehicles except permitted ones from December 29 midnight to December 30 midnight in the election areas.
