All preparations have been made to stage the re-polls today at Narsingdi’s Madhabdi municipality, where voting was cancelled on December 30 because of unrest.
Ballot papers, boxes and seals have already reached the 12 polling centres of the municipality, which has four mayoral candidates seeking the backing of 27,706 voters.
Additional security measures have been put in place at all the voting centres. The municipality is also seeing 45 candidates running for councillor’s office and 10 women candidates contesting for reserved councillor seat.
Returning Officer Rafiqul Islam, also the district election official, said the police would have six mobile teams and four striking forces in place, and RAB would have four mobile teams ready to deal with any unrest.
Each centre would have one magistrate, 10 police members and six observers present, he told our Narsingdi correspondent.
During the initial voting on December 30, the election to Madhabdi municipality was cancelled entirely after all twelve of the area’s polling centres were besieged by violent clashes. The poll there was also marred by fake votes, seizing of ballot papers and attacks on election officials.
Voters ready in Kurigram’s Ulipur
Two voting centres in Kurigram’s Ulipur, where voting was suspended during the December 30 elections, will see re-polls today.
Voters will head to Narikelbari Government Primary School and Madinatul Ulum Dakhil Madrasa voting centres to cast their ballots between 8am and 4pm, Returning Officer Delwar Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune.
Delwar, also the district election official, said sporadic incidents forced election to be suspended at the two centres; but the locals have been notified of the new date.
All presiding officers are prepared along with law enforcement agencies to ensure that voting is peaceful throughout the day, Delwar told our Kurigram correspondent.
