The momentum to the city polls in Dhaka and Chittagong is set to shift to a higher gear from today, as the candidates will finally get the official nod for launching their campaigns to woo voters.
SM Asaduzzaman, the Election Commission’s director for public relations, told journalists yesterday that according to the election rules, the candidates will be allowed to canvass in their respective constituencies until April 26, but would have to stop all campaigning 32 hours before voters head to cast ballots on April 28.
Election Commissioner Mohammad Shah Newaz said returning officers of the bifurcated Dhaka City Corporation have been directed to take necessary steps to enforce the electoral code of conduct among the candidates. The returning officers have been told to distribute their attention among all the candidates, instead of focusing on only individual contenders.
Talking to journalists at the EC office in Agargaon, he said magistrates have been appointed to monitor whether the candidates and their supporters were following the code of conduct.
The candidates have already been given the election manual and the electoral code of conduct, said Dhaka North City Corporation Returning Officer Md Shah Alam, adding that all those running for mayoral or councillor posts should know all the rules by now.
“We ordered all the officers-in-charge of police stations to strongly enforce the electoral code of conduct,” Shah Alam said, warning that anyone found violating the rules would be arrested by the police.
Despite the restrictions against starting election campaigns until April 7 along with the cautionary words from EC officials, many of the candidates and their supporters have long been active on social networking sites like Facebook to promote their campaigns.
Since the collection of nomination papers, posters of several mayoral and councillor aspirants were also seen on the walls of Dhaka, along with the walls of Facebook pages.
Sarwoer Alam, a metropolitan executive magistrate who leads a mobile court, said they were trying to prevent candidates from violating the electoral code of conduct.
“We have already led drives and fined several aspirants and supporters for the violation of electoral code and conduct,” he said.
Commenting on canvassing through social networking sites, Sarwoer said: “As campaigning on Facebook and other social media is the latest version of canvassing, that is why there is no specific rule to prevent their campaign.”
