The Election Commission has no plans to deploy the Army during the City Corporation elections, announced chief election commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmadon Thursday.
“I did not find anything wrong in terms of the law and order situation in 4-city areas; it is satisfactory. There is no ground for deploying the army during the City Corporation elections,” he announced at a press briefing. The EC is set to conduct the elections in Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet City Corporations on June 15.
Following a meeting with representatives of law enforcement agencies, deputy commissioners and returning officers of Rajshahi, Sylhet, Khulna and Barisal ahead of the forthcoming elections in the four city areas, Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad told media persons that the law and order situation was “good” and no major incident or accident has occurred in the election areas so far. Hence, he explained, the EC has decided that there was no necessity of deploying the Army at election time.
The Opposition parties had appealed to the EC to deploy the Army during polls in city areas as they feared that the situation could deteriorate.
“We directed the law and order agencies to maintain a peaceful situation before and after the voting day to ensure free and fair elections in four city corporation areas. However, a joint team of the police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) will be deployed as strike forces and mobile teams during the polls,” he said at the EC secretariat.
Commissioners Mohammad Abu Hafiz, Brig. Gen. (retd) Md Zabed Ali, Md Shah Nawaz and Mohammad Abdul Mobarak were present.
Besides, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel will be deployed in each of the four cities on the basis of the number of voters and electoral areas there, according to the action plan of the Election Commission, the CEC said.
Replying to a query, the CEC told media persons that the EC has not received any allegations against Azmat Ullah, the ruling party’s candidate for Gazipur’s mayoral post. However, he said, “If we receive any such allegations, then we will look into the issue.”
-With The Independent input
