Election to the Rangpur City Corporation will begin this (Tuesday) morning. The Election Commission has completed preparations for holding the December 27 Rangpur City Corporation (RpCC) Elections-2022 peacefully in a free, fair and transparent manner.
Meanwhile, the competing candidates for the posts of mayor, general councillors and reserved female councillors have passed their rest-less moments in door-to-door visits to attract voters as electioneering ends from midnight Sunday night.
Returning Officer (RO) for RpCC Elections-2022 Md Abdul Baten told BSS that three-tier security measures have been taken for holding the polls peacefully ensuring complete security blanket in the city area.
“We have received electronic voting machines (EVMs) from the Election Commission and taken necessary steps for holding the RpCC-2022 polls at all 229 polling centres using EVMs peacefully,” he said.
All 229 presiding officers, 1,349 assistant presiding officers and 2,698 polling officers with election inputs and security forces reached polling centres in the RpCC area Monday.
Adequate number of members of law enforcement agencies including police, Ansar and VDP, APBn, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have been deployed for holding the RpCC-2022 polls peacefully amid tight security blankets.
Thirty-three roving teams, 11 striking force teams and six reserved striking force teams comprising Police, APBn and Battalion Ansar and VDP, 17 teams of RAB and 11 more teams of BGB will remain on duty during the polls.
"Fifteen security forces including five armed personnel will patrol at each of the 133 normal polling centres while 16 security personnel with six armed personnel have been deployed at each of the other 86 important polling centres," the RO said.
Thirty-three Executive Magistrates are leading 33 mobile courts and 16 Senior Judicial Magistrates and Judicial Magistrates are leading 16 summary courts to conduct trials for violation of election rules from Sunday and will continue to work till December 29 next.
The striking forces will instantly intervene in any untoward incident and summary courts will conduct trials for breaking election rules and members of the law enforcement agencies will be on duty round the clock in the important polling centres.
In addition, plain cloth security personnel of RAB, police and intelligence will remain on duty to ensure maximum degree of security for holding RpCC polls peacefully.
The Election Commission and district and police administrations will work in a coordinated manner and take all necessary steps to ensure holding of RpCC-2022 polls in a free, fair and impartial manner.
The RpCC Elections- 2022 will be held at 1,349 booths of 229 polling centres using EVMs from 8 am to 4 pm today (Tuesday).
“Every polling station will be covered by CCTV cameras and the RpCC-2022 elections will be monitored from both Dhaka and Rangpur with CCTV cameras. If any problem is noticed, steps will be taken immediately,” the RO added.
All 260 candidates, including nine for mayoral, 183 for 33 general councilors and 68 for 11 reserved female councilors posts, made their restless door-to-door public contacts in the last moment poll campaign that ended from midnight Sunday night.
Local people are expecting a triangular contest for mayoral post among Awami League (AL)-nominated HosneAraLutfa Dalia (Boat), Jatiya Party-nominated MdMostafizar Rahman (Plough) and Independent candidate MdLatifur Rahman (Elephant).
The six other mayoral post candidates are: MdAmiruzzaman of IslamiAndolan Bangladesh (Hand fan), Md. Abu Raihan of Bangladesh Congress (Green coconut), Md. Tauhidur Rahman Mondal of KhelafatMajlish (Wall clock), Md. Shafiar Rahman of JatiyaSamajtantrik Dal- JASOD (Moshal), Md. Mehedi Hasan (Independent-Deer) and Md. KhorshedAlam of Zaker Party (Rose flower).
Every polling station will be covered by CCTV cameras and the RpCC-2022 elections will be monitored from both Dhaka and Rangpur with CCTV cameras. If any problem is noticed, steps will be taken immediately.
As many as 4,26,469 voters, including 2,12,302 males and 2,14,167 females, will apply voting rights in the RpCC Elections- 2022.