Security measures were strengthened at the election commission secretariat ahead of on Monday evening’s announcement of the polls schedule for the next parliamentary elections.
A large number of police, Rab and members of different intelligence agencies are now deployed to the EC secretariat and in front of the Planning Commission gate and around the commission area.
The law enforcement agencies have been checking on all who enter the commission secretariat. The commission has also installed metal detectors at other gates.
Before the announcement of the polls schedule at 8pm on Monday, all stickers and logos of the Election Commission were removed from all kinds of transport used by the EC officials, and the commission directed its field-level offices to do the same.
The officials said they had taken the initiative to ward off the opposition parties’ possible attacks.
After the announcement of the schedule, members of law enforcement agencies beefed up patrols in the commission area.
The formal meeting on setting the polls schedule started around 2:35pm. The full commission finalised the schedule shortly after meeting with the officials concerned. A large number of journalists were waiting outside to cover the announcement.
After the commission meeting, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad told reporters that the schedule would be declared through his speech to the nation which would be broadcast at 7:30pm.
After finalising the schedule, the Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar recorded the CEC’s speech from 4pm to 5pm.
On Sunday, the commission also held a series of meetings, but did not announce the polls schedule. The CEC said the commission was waiting for political consensus as the process of dialogue had already started.
An election commission on Monday told the Dhaka Tribune that the commission could have fixed the polls date earlier if the political parties had reached consensus. A political deadlock was reached because of continued disagreement over how the upcoming general elections will be held.
Amidst repeated demands from the BNP for a non-partisan election-time administration, a polls-time government was formed on November 21 to oversee the elections.