High-level meeting reviews law, order situation ahead of polls

A high-level meeting was held today (21 January) to review the overall preparations for the upcoming national election, with a particular focus on both administrative and security-related arrangements.

Chief Adviser (CA) Muhammad Yunus chaired the meeting at his office in the city's Tejgaon area, which reviewed the election preparations in a very comprehensive and in-depth manner.

Home Affairs Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Adviser Fouzul Kabir Khan, Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser on Defence and National Solidarity Development Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Hafiz, National Security Adviser Dr Khalilur Rahman, Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, Cabinet Secretary Dr Sheikh Abdur Rashid, Chief of Army Staff General Waker-Uz-Zaman, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral M Nazmul Hassan, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Hasan Mahmood Khan, Chief Adviser's Principal Secretary M Siraz Uddin Miah, Home Affairs Secretary Nasimul Ghani, EC's Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Baharul Alam, and chiefs of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), Bangladesh Ansar and VDP, Coast Guard and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), and representatives from different intelligence agencies were present at the meeting.

Later, CA's Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam briefed the media about the meeting at the Foreign Service Academy this afternoon. Deputy Press Secretary Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad Majumder and Senior Assistant Press Secretary Foyez Ahammad were present at the briefing.

According to the Election Commission, the press secretary said elections will be held simultaneously in 300 constituencies on February 12, as delimitation issues regarding a few constituencies have been resolved.

Noting that today was scheduled for the allocation of electoral symbols, Shafiqul Alam said the EC secretary informed the meeting that the printing of posters and ballots will begin from midnight tonight, and the process will start in full swing from tomorrow morning.

According to the EC officials, a total of 69 Returning Officers (ROs) will perform duties in this election, while for the first time, Regional Election Officers have been appointed for Dhaka, Chattogram and Khulna as ROs.

Deputy Commissioners (DCs) will serve as Returning Officers in 64 districts, while two Divisional Commissioners will also act as Returning Officers.

A total of 598 Assistant Returning Officers (AROs), including 495 Upazila Nirbahi Officers (UNOs), 68 Upazila or Thana Election Officers, 11 Regional Executive Officers, five Additional Deputy Commissioners from district administrations, four Cantonment Executive Officers, and four Additional Deputy Commissioners (Revenue), will perform duties in the election.

Regarding nomination paper submission, the EC officials informed the meeting that a total of 2,568 nomination papers were submitted. Of them, 2,087 candidates represented political parties, while 481 were independent candidates.

A total of 726 nomination papers were rejected. The number of validly nominated candidates stands at 1,842. A total of 51 political parties are participating in the election.

Referring to the EC, Shafiqul Alam said that the elections will be held at 247,499 voting booths of 42,779 polling centres in all 300 constituencies. The total number of voters is 127,711,793. Of them, 64,825,361 are male, 62,885,200 female, while 1,232 are transgender.

About law and order, the press secretary said district- and upazila-level law and order committees have been formed ahead of the polls.

At the district level, the Deputy Commissioners (District Magistrates) will serve as chair, while at the upazila level, the Upazila Nirbahi Officer will serve as chair.

Judicial inquiry and adjudication committees have been formed in all 300 constituencies.

To ensure speedy trial of election-related offences, a proposal has been made to appoint 657 Judicial Magistrates across the 300 constituencies from February 8 to February 14, Shafiqul Alam said, adding that there will be 1,047 Executive Magistrates in the polls.

A minimum of 15 members of law enforcement personnel will be deployed at each polling centre, he said, adding, however, that the number may increase in vulnerable polling centres.

For the first time this year, armed Ansar members will be stationed inside polling centres to ensure the security of Presiding Officers, said Shafiqul Alam.

Noting that 25,500 body-worn cameras will be used by police personnel at risky and highly risky polling centres, the press secretary said all cameras have already been supplied and are ready for use.

During the meeting, he said, a live trial was conducted by connecting the Chief Adviser directly with a police officer at a polling centre in Hathazari in Chattogram.

The meeting was informed that more than 100,000 members of the Bangladesh Army will be deployed during the election, Shafiqul Alam said.

In addition, over 5,000 members of the Bangladesh Navy, more than 3,730 members of the Bangladesh Air Force, around 150,000 police personnel, 576,000 members of Bangladesh Ansar and Village Defence Party, approximately 38,000 members of Border Guard Bangladesh, more than 3,500 members of Bangladesh Coast Guard, around 8,000 RAB members, and 13,390 personnel from Fire Service and Civil Defence will be deployed.

Additionally, around 15,000 members of the Bangladesh National Cadet Corps (BNCC) are expected to be engaged.

For the first time, the Fire Service has been involved to ensure a rapid response to any emergency incidents.

The press secretary said that the meeting was also informed that approximately 500 drones will be deployed for election monitoring, along with 50 dog squads, while drone operations will be fully managed by government security forces, and restrictions will be imposed so that civilians cannot fly drones.

A committee will be formed soon to coordinate drone operations, he added.

A special feature of this election is the Election Security Application, which will be used by members of all law enforcement agencies at polling centres.

Besides, armed forces, police, BGB, Coast Guard, RAB, Ansar, DGFI, NSI, and Assistant Returning Officers will act as responders using the application.