Staff Reporter :
All stage is set to hold the Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) election today (Thursday) amid tight security.
Voting will begin at 8am and continue till 4 in the afternoon without any break.
Over 4.79 lakh voters are expected to cast their ballots to elect the city mayor, 27 ward councillors and nine women councillors (reserved seats) under the party symbols for the first time.
The candidates, especially those of the Awami League (AL) and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) vying for the mayor’s post, went all out to win over voters with attractive promises.
Both the AL-nominated mayoral candidate, Selina Hayat Ivy, and the BNP’s
Shakhawat Hossain Khan passed busy time over the last few days, going from door to door across the city to woo votes.
Ivy is confident about her reelection as she thinks people will gracefully evaluate ‘huge development’ activities she carried out in the last five years in her city.
Shakhawat, on the other hand, is very much confident of a better show as he thinks people will stage a silent ‘vote revolution’ by casting their ballots in favour of him as a mark of their protest against the government’s ‘repressive acts and misdeeds’.
Meanwhile, members of different law enforcement agencies put up a security blanket over Narayanganj city in order to ensure smooth and peaceful voting.
Three-tier security blankets have been thrown over Narayanganj City Corporation with deployment of 9,500 law enforcers including Ansar, police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), coastguard, and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) to hold the elections peacefully.
Plainclothes police personnel alongside with uniformed police have been asked to perform with utmost sincerity and professionalism to maintain the law and order.
The Election Commission (EC) has already sent polls materials to voting centres in Narayanganj for the city corporation elections.
The candidates ended their campaigns officially on Tuesday night, two days before the voting.
“All preparations have already been completed to hold a free, fair and acceptable election to the Narayanganj City Corporation. On the matter of security, special attention will be given to 137 centres identified as vulnerable. Stern actions will be taken to thwart untoward incidents,” said Returning Officer Nuruzzaman Talukder on Wednesday.
He added law enforcers have already been deployed by three times higher in comparison with other elections to hold the polls in a peaceful and festive manner.
The members of elite force Rapid Action Battalion were found on Wednesday deploying its dog squad and bomb disposal unit as part of the security measures. It has also set up security checkpoints at several locations.
“As many as 600 RAB personnel have been deployed along with police and the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) as the ‘strike force’ for Thursday’s voting,” the Returning Officer said. In the last mayoral elections in 2011, Ivy ran and won against then Awami League-backed Shamim Osman by around 1 lakh votes as an independent. The BNP-backed candidate Khandaker Taimur Alam had withdrawn at the eleventh hour.
All stage is set to hold the Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) election today (Thursday) amid tight security.
Voting will begin at 8am and continue till 4 in the afternoon without any break.
Over 4.79 lakh voters are expected to cast their ballots to elect the city mayor, 27 ward councillors and nine women councillors (reserved seats) under the party symbols for the first time.
The candidates, especially those of the Awami League (AL) and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) vying for the mayor’s post, went all out to win over voters with attractive promises.
Both the AL-nominated mayoral candidate, Selina Hayat Ivy, and the BNP’s
Shakhawat Hossain Khan passed busy time over the last few days, going from door to door across the city to woo votes.
Ivy is confident about her reelection as she thinks people will gracefully evaluate ‘huge development’ activities she carried out in the last five years in her city.
Shakhawat, on the other hand, is very much confident of a better show as he thinks people will stage a silent ‘vote revolution’ by casting their ballots in favour of him as a mark of their protest against the government’s ‘repressive acts and misdeeds’.
Meanwhile, members of different law enforcement agencies put up a security blanket over Narayanganj city in order to ensure smooth and peaceful voting.
Three-tier security blankets have been thrown over Narayanganj City Corporation with deployment of 9,500 law enforcers including Ansar, police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), coastguard, and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) to hold the elections peacefully.
Plainclothes police personnel alongside with uniformed police have been asked to perform with utmost sincerity and professionalism to maintain the law and order.
The Election Commission (EC) has already sent polls materials to voting centres in Narayanganj for the city corporation elections.
The candidates ended their campaigns officially on Tuesday night, two days before the voting.
“All preparations have already been completed to hold a free, fair and acceptable election to the Narayanganj City Corporation. On the matter of security, special attention will be given to 137 centres identified as vulnerable. Stern actions will be taken to thwart untoward incidents,” said Returning Officer Nuruzzaman Talukder on Wednesday.
He added law enforcers have already been deployed by three times higher in comparison with other elections to hold the polls in a peaceful and festive manner.
The members of elite force Rapid Action Battalion were found on Wednesday deploying its dog squad and bomb disposal unit as part of the security measures. It has also set up security checkpoints at several locations.
“As many as 600 RAB personnel have been deployed along with police and the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) as the ‘strike force’ for Thursday’s voting,” the Returning Officer said. In the last mayoral elections in 2011, Ivy ran and won against then Awami League-backed Shamim Osman by around 1 lakh votes as an independent. The BNP-backed candidate Khandaker Taimur Alam had withdrawn at the eleventh hour.
