All preparations have been complete for the first-ever election to Gazipur City Corporation on Saturday when the voters will elect a mayor and 76 ward councillors for five years.
For the day-long voting from 8am to 4pm, public holiday has been declared in newly-formed city corporation area.
To hold the polls in a free and fair manner, the Election Commission has completed all its necessary arrangements.
Now the voters, who are apparently silent and fearing an unwanted situation, are ready to exercise their voting rights.
Although it is a local-level election, two major political forces – Awami League and BNP – have taken it as a prestige issue when their ally parties also participated in the election campaigns.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad on Thursday said the EC was prepared for any type of situation during the election. “There is a chance that the law and order situation might fall,” he added.
About army deployment, he the commission would deploy necessary number of law enforcers during the polls.
Matiar Rahman, the returning officer for GCC polls, on Friday distributed ballot papers, ballot boxes, stamps and other required stationary to the presiding officers from four centres of Nagar Bhaban, office of the returning officer and National University.
The returning officer told the Dhaka Tribune at his office that all necessary arrangements for the polls were complete. But he identified “bad weather, poor communication system and huge size of the city corporation area” as the main challenges for holding the election smoothly.
The ruling AL has taken the election to revive its stand as it experienced sweeping defeat in the four other city corporations held last month.
On the other hand, after the landslide victory of the 18-party backed candidates, the BNP men are more hopeful about their victory here too.
Apart from this, the Gazipur area is considered an AL stronghold, and the BNP now wants to break the trend. Then again, AL wants to give signal to the countrymen that the government’s popularity has not been diminished yet through a victory in Gazipur.
The mayoral and councillor candidates ended their two-week hectic campaign before Thursday midnight.
It is the 11th city corporation of the country that formed in January this year, comprising Tongi and Gazipur municipality, with an area of almost 330sq-km. A total of 1,026,938 voters – 527,777 male and 499,161 female – will exercise their franchise to elect their first candidates.
There are 392 polling centres of which 200 polling have been declared vulnerable or risky.
As many as 457 councillor candidates will fight for the 57 posts while 128 women will contest the polls for 19 more seats reserved for women.
Of the seven mayor aspirants, contest is likely to be seen among three: Grand Alliance-backed Azmat Ullah Khan, 18-party-supported MA Mannan and AL’s rival candidate Jahangir Alam. Though Jahangir later withdrew his candidature, his symbol “pineapple” will be there on the ballot papers.
The other mayoral candidates are Aman Ullah, Mesbah Uddin Sarker Rubel, Nazim Uddin Ahmed and Rina Sultana.
Mannan smells plot
BNP-led opposition alliance candidate Mannan yesterday alleged that a conspiracy was going on to change the polls result. He warned that he would not accept the EC’s plan to declare the results the next day of polls.
At a press conference at the BNP office at Tongi, he demanded announcement of the results immediately after the vote counting ends.
He also alleged that his rival Azmat violated electoral codes. “Cadres of Chhatra League and Juba League are now staying in Gazipur,” he said adding that he informed his allegation it to the EC.
