Printing of ballot papers for the 12th Jatiya Sangsad (JS) election has already been started and will be completed by December 31, said officials of the Election Commission (EC).
Besides, they said, sending of ballot papers to the district headquarters will be started from December 25.
"The work of ballot paper printing is underway. Besides, from December 25, the ballot paper will reach the districts with the help of law enforcement forces," EC Additional Secretary Ashok Kumar Debnath said on Tuesday at a press conference held at the media centre of EC Headquarters in the city's Agargaon.
Currently, printing of ballots is going on in three government presses, including BG Press, he said, adding that there is no specific budget for the printing of ballot papers. However, Taka 33 crores have already been given initially to this end, he added.
The ballot papers will be handed to the returning officers' offices, he said, adding that later these will be preserved in the office of Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers.
To avoid reprinting, he said that the ballot papers will be printed first for those districts where no case is pending.
The Additional Secretary said that the Electoral Inquiry Committee and the Executive Magistrate are working at the field level to follow the electoral code of conduct properly.
He said that the lists of candidates for 300 constituencies have been received.
The work of printing the ballot paper is going on following the lists of candidates, he added.
"Security forces will provide security for ballots and polling materials," he said.
According to the EC official sources, the number of total polling centres is 42,103 and total voters are 11,96,81,633. Among the total voters, 6,07,71,000 are male, 5,89,19,202 are female and 825 are masculine gender.
Besides, a total of 9,09,529 officials and employees are going to be engaged in the polls duties. Of them 4,06,364 are presiding officers, 2,87,722 assistant presiding officers and 5,75,443 polling officers.
Alongside the deployment of the Army personnel, the EC has also decided to engage a total of 7.5 lakh members from different law-enforcement and security agencies. Of them, 1,82,091 will be deployed from the Bangladesh Police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), 46,876 from the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), 5,16,000 from the Ansar and VDP, and 2,350 from the Coast Guard.
