Voting in much-talked about Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) elections begins today (Thursday) morning through a hard contest among the candidates.
Awami League candidate Advocate Azmat Ullah Khan is said to be facing serious challenge by independent candidate Zayeda Khatun (Symbol-Table clock), the mother for former GCC Mayor (Dismissed by the court) Jahangir Alam.
Former general secretary of Gazipur district unit of Awami League, Jahangir has recently been permanently expelled from the Awami League for violation of party discipline. Jahangir and his mother both had submitted nomination papers for the GCC mayoral posts. But the EC rejected his candidature due to bank default.
According to locals, anti-Awami League voters, including BNP and Jammat, and a section of Awami League supporters, who are working against Azmat Ulla might vote for Zayeda Khatun.
In this circumstance, voters in GCC polls are in a very enthusiastic mood.
Among all the eight GCC mayoral candidates, five are contesting from different parties and three others are contesting as the independent candidates.
Those who are contesting from the parties for the GCC mayoral posts are Advocate Azmat Ullah Khan from the Awami League (Boat symbol), former secretary MM Niazuddin from the Jatiya Party (Plough symbol), Gazi Ataur Rahman from the Islami Andolon Bangladesh (Hand fan symbol), Raju Ahmed from the Zaker Party (Rose symbol), and Atiqul Islam from the Gana Front (Fish symbol).
Besides, independent candidates for the mayoral post are Zayeda Khatun (Table clock symbol), Harun-or-Rashid (Horse symbol), and Sarkar Shah Nur Islam (Elephant symbol).
According to Election Commission officials, a total of eight candidates are contesting for the mayoral posts while 248 for the post councilors in 57. Besides, 79 female councillor contesting for the reserved posts for the women.
All the necessary preparations have been completed as the voting for GCC elections is scheduled to begin at 8:00am and will continue till 4:00pm without any break.
"The Election Commission has already completed all the necessary preparations for holding the GCC polls. The formal electoral campaign ended on Tuesday midnight," said Election Commissioner (EC) M Alamgir.
All the polling equipment already have been sent to the polling stations on Wednesday morning and later handed over to the presiding officers concerned from the returning officer's office located at Bangataj auditorium in Gazipur.
A total of 13,000 law enforcers have been deployed to maintain law and order during the election, said Gazipur Metropolitan Police (GMP) Commissioner Molla Nazrul Islam.
The GCC, constituted with a total of 57 wards, has some 11,794,76 voters. Of them, 5,92,762 are male voters, 5,86,696 are female voters and the rest 18 are hijras.
The voting will be held using the electronic voting machine (EVM) at 480 polling centers in the GCC area.
Members of the law enforcement agencies have been deployed at all the polling centers.
In addition to this, a total of 30 teams led by the members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), 13 platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), 19 striking police force teams and fifty-seven mobile teams have also been deployed at the GCC areas.
Gazipur Metropolitan Police Commissioner Molla Nazrul Islam on Wednesday said, ‘20-22 members of from different law enforcement agencies will perform duty at each centre.
“I hope a free and fair election will be held with the efforts of all amid foolproof security,’ he said.