Just a day before the final campaign in the Gazipur City Corporation polls, the central leaders of both the Awami league and BNP campaigned at different places in the city and sought votes for their respective candidates.
Apart from the central leaders, the mayoral candidates continued massive campaign on Wednesday, in their desperate bid to win the hearts of the voters in elections to the Gazipur City Corporation scheduled for Saturday.
The two front runners – ruling Awami League-backed Azmat Ullah Khan and BNP-backed MA Mannan – along with their senior leaders visited door to door apart from holding small gatherings.
Non-residents and non-voters of Gazipur City Corporation were asked to leave the city by 12am of July 3.
Matiar Rahman, returning officer, said all the outsiders have to leave Gazipur by 12am on July 3 and none of the outsiders can take part in any campaign from Wednesday.
Not only leaders and activists of the political parties but also actors, actress and singers campaigned for their contenders in the GCC polls.
The Election Commission officials said they were still receiving allegations from the candidates.
“Still we are taking the allegations into out consideration but after a certain period we cannot do this as we have to remain busy with the last-moment election job,” Matiar Rahman, returning officer of the Gazipur City Corporation Polls, told the Dhaka Tribune.
Azmat Ullah Khan on Wednesday campaigned in Tongi industrial area, Pagar, Miraspara, Arichpur, Modhumita, and Natunabazar areas while Mannan campaigned at Basan, Konabari and different places of Gazipur city.
AL leaders including Tofail Ahmed, Abdul Mannan, Aktaruzzaman, Sujit Roy Nandi, Jahid Ashan Russel, Sarah Begum Kabori and Junahed Ahmed Palak, among others, joined the electioneering for Azmat Ullah.
BNP leaders Khandoker Mossarof Hossain, Tariqual Islam, Hannan Shah, Nazrul Islam Khan, Gayeshwar Roy, Hafiz Uddin and Altaf Hossain Chowdhury joined scores of other central leaders to campaign for Mannan.
10 centres under digital eye
The Election Commission has decided to monitor 10 polling centres out of 392 in Gazipur City Corporation polls through digital devices, including skype and Tablet PCs.
A total of 26,590 voters will cast their votes in the polling centres, said Election Commission officials.
About the monitoring, Returning Officer Matiar Rahman said: “It is an internal exercise of the Election Commission. We have introduced the system so that the central election commission officials can see the voting atmosphere sitting in their office.”
The returning officer also said there are so many remote areas in the district that it is tough to travel the areas during the voting day.
“It will be good if we could bring all the polling centres under the digital devices. But it is not possible as it is very expensive.”
The 10 polling centres which will be monitored by the EC are – Bagbari Hakkanya Chalehiya Dakhil Madrasa in ward 5, Konabari Parijat Government Primary School under Ward 8, MA Kuddus High School under Ward 9, Salna Islamia Fazil Madrasa under Ward 19, Jaidevpur Government Girls High School under Ward 28, Badey-Kalemeshwar Maddyapara Forkania Madrassa under Ward 35, Meghdubi Government Primary School under Ward 40, Noyagaon MA Majid Miah High School under Ward 46, ERCPH Station Road under Ward 56, Little Flower School Under Ward 57.
Gazipur City Corporation is the second largest city corporation in the country with an area of 329.53 square Kilometres.
A total of 1,026,964 voters – 499,181 male and 527,783 female – will exercise their franchise to elect the city mayor as well as 57 councillors and 19 reserved (women) councillors.
