The Election Commission’s (EC) preparations for today’s three city corporation polls will rely on the monitoring and security duties of more than 139,000 people.
Each polling centre in today’s city corporation elections in Dhaka North, Dhaka South and Chittagong city will be monitored by three observers.
That translates into some 9,000 observers working at some 2,701 polling centres in the three city corporations, EC records show.
Some 3,671 local observers from 39 different election observer groups, around 5,000 journalists from various local and international print and electronic media firms and around 150 foreign observers from several international agencies will keep watch as six million voters cast their ballots.
The election will remain under the close surveillance of the poll observers, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed said yesterday at a press briefing.
A total of 1,180 candidates for mayor and councillor are competing for 182 posts in the three city corporations.
Forty-eight of them were aspiring for the three mayorships, he added.
In Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), 20 aspirants are contesting the elections for the mayoral post, 97 women are running for 19 reserved seats and 390 contenders are vying for 57 general councillor posts.
Some 1,870,753 DSCC voters – 1,009,286 males and 861,467 females – will cast their votes at 4,746 booths in 889 polling stations.
In Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), 16 aspirants are running for the mayoral post, 89 women are vying for 12 reserved seats and 281 contenders are fighting for 36 general councillor posts.
There are 2,345,374 voters on the DNCC roll – 1,224,701 males and 1,120,673 females – served by 5,892 booths at 1,093 polling stations.
In Chittagong City Corporation, 12 candidates are running for the mayoral post, 62 women are contesting14 reserved seats and 213 hopefuls are competing for 41 general councillor posts.
The EC said it had already sent polling materials, including ballots and rubber ink stamps, to polling centres yesterday.
Voting will take place from 8am and will continue uninterrupted until 4pm.
Some 50,000 polling agents will conduct balloting in the three city corporations.
To guard against trouble, the EC has deployed around 500 magistrates, along with the army and regular law enforcement agencies, for four days from Sunday to Wednesday morning in the three city corporations – Dhaka South City Corporation, Dhaka North City Corporation and Chittagong City Corportion.
Magistrates – backed by some 80,000 regular law enforcement personnel including members of the police, RAB, BGB, Coast Guard and Ansar – will deal with disturbances through summary trials.
The army will remain inside the cantonments but may be called up by returning officers if needed, according to the EC.
