Staff Reporter
The Election Commission has been taking full preparation for holding the upazila polls on January 22 and would start sending the election materials from January 12.
The Commission, however, will not deploy army during the upazila polls. “Additional police and BDR will be deployed during the upazila elections, not army,” Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain said at a press briefing yesterday.
However, judicial magistrates would start going to field levels within a day or two for the important local-government elections, withheld for a long time by successive political governments.
Brig Sakhwat announced the Commission’s plan to hold the overdue election to Dhaka City Corporation in March after completing the upcoming upazila polls on schedule.
The voter list will be updated before the DCC polls,” the Commissioner said.
The Commission has also decided to take legal actions against the persons who carried ballot papers outside election centres and displayed those in public to create “controversy and anarchy”.
The Commission has already sent a letter to the police department to take necessary steps to this effect.
Brig Sakhawat said that the Commission would investigate into the reported cases and take legal actions against the persons involved.
“It’s a punishable offence. We’re sending letters to police in this regard,” he said about the cases of carrying and displaying ballot papers outside election booths.
“The police should have taken legal actions immediately. But as they did not do it the commission has sent a letter to the police headquarters,” Sakhwat added.
Meanwhile, a former BNP lawmaker Engineer Manjurul Ahsan Munshi who is husband of a candidate Majeda Ahsan has been awarded seven years imprisonment for violating election rules.
The Commission is also serious about pursuing the cases pending with the High Court against the loan and bill defaulters who were elected members of Parliament in the December 29 general election.
The Commissioner informed that by-elections for the vacated constituencies would be held in February adding, “The election schedule in this regard will be announced in the last week of January.”
The Election Commissioner urged all, including the newly elected members of Parliament, to abide by the electoral code of conduct during the parliamentary by-election on January 12 for Noakhali-1 seat.
“We urge the MPs not to visit Noakhali-1 constituency on the election day,” he said.
Saying that the EC would not announce the result of the upazila polls like the parliamentary elections, Sakhawat informed that the returning officers concerned would announce the results.
Replying to a question, he said the upazila polls would be held with the existing voter list.
About the union prishad and municipal elections, Sakhawat said those elections would be held categorically on the basis of greater districts across the country, but the dates have not been fixed yet by the commission.
About post-election violence, he said until December 31, the whole situation under the Election Commission had been controlled and peaceful. But violence started breaking out from January 1. “The administration is to take proper steps in this regard,” he said.
Courtesy: nation.ittefaq.com
