Electioneering in Rajshahi and Sylhet cities have ended on Monday. All mayoral candidates have already spent busy time in public relations in these two cities. But both Sylhet and Rajshahi City Corporations have prepared a list of important (risky) polling centres by the law enforcement agencies.
According to the list, out of 190 centres, 132 centres are vulnerable in Sylhet and 148 out of 155 poll centres in Rajshahi are in high risk. In Sylhet almost 70 per cent and in Rajshahi more than 90 per cent polling centres have been identified as vulnerable.
In Sylhet all the centres in 18 Wards of the city have been identified as vulnerable. The remaining 58 centres have been identified as normal (risk-free).
Voting for Sylhet City Corporation elections will be held on Wednesday. According to the sources of the office of the returning officer, the total number of voters in the city is 486,605 people. A total of 8 persons are contesting for the post of mayor, 273 persons for the post of councillor in the General Ward and 87 persons for the post of councillor in the Reserved Ward. There are a total of 1,364 polling booths in 190 centres.
A source in the Sylhet Metropolitan Police said law enforcement forces have identified high-risk centres as 'critical' and risk-free centres as 'normal'. 'Important' centres are identified by considering various aspects such as natural calamities, lack of security in the centres, fear of violence between councillor candidates, centres with poor communication, fear of untoward incidents.
According to this list, all polling stations of Wards 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 15, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 36, 38, 39 and 42 have been identified as risky. Apart from this, all the centres of Ward number 41 are risk free.
Sylhet Metropolitan Police Additional Deputy Commissioner (Mass Communication) Sudeep Das said the list of important and common centres has been prepared. Law enforcement personnel will be active in the centres for fair polling.
The Rajshahi City Corporation elections will be held in 155 polling centres, out of which 148 are termed 'risky' by the Election Commission.
The returning officer Delwar Hossain said all preparations have been made by the commission for the ballot.
He said, "Out of 155 centres in Rajshahi, 148 are vulnerable. The work of installing CC cameras in all centres are going on. Attempts at sabotage will be dealt with sternly. This is the first time in Rajshahi city election that the vote will be taken in EVM."
Rajshahi Metropolitan Police Commissioner Anisur Rahman calls each centre 'important' in terms of security.
He said, "As per the instructions of the Election Commission, we have appointed police in all the centres. Out of this, 6 to 7 policemen have been kept in vulnerable centres and five in general centres.
In Rajshahi, Jatiya Party's mayoral candidate Saiful Islam Swapan has completed mass communication ahead of the election. On the other hand, Awami League's mayoral candidate AHM Khairuzzaman Liton has regularly held public meetings on important roads in the city. The mayoral candidates assured the development by going door to door of the voters.
Jatiya Party mayoral candidate Saiful Islam Swapan wants to withdraw from Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) elections. Claiming that there will not be a fair vote with the EVM, he said the decision to run in the election was wrong. Now he wants to withdraw his candidature. I want to know the decision of my party on this. No decision on this issue reached me from the headquarters till Sunday evening. So I can't get out. Earlier last Monday, Islami Andolan Bangladesh announced boycott of the elections in Sylhet and Rajshahi cities.
Apart from Awami League's Boat symbol candidate Khairuzzaman Liton, another candidate is Zaker Party's Rose symbol candidate Latif Anwar. Latif Anwar has not made any complaint about this election yet. He sees everything well.
Earlier, in this election, 4 people are contesting for the post of mayor, 111 people for the post of general councillor and 46 people for the post of reserved councillor.
There are 351,982 voters in Rajshahi city. Among them 171,167 are male voters and 180,809 female voters and 6 transgender voters. Besides, 30,157 new voters will exercise their voting rights in this election for the first time.
