The Election Commission (EC) has instructed that video footage from closed-circuit cameras (CC cameras) at polling stations during the recent general election and referendum be preserved as official documents.
The Commission directed that footage from the two critical days; the day before voting and the voting day, be stored at the offices of the assistant returning officers for record-keeping and potential future use.
On Thursday, EC issued formal instructions to 69 returning officers, including two divisional commissioners (Dhaka and Chattogram), three regional election officers (Dhaka, Chattogram, and Khulna), and 64 deputy commissioners of districts.
The letter, signed by EC Deputy Secretary Mohammad Monir Hossain, requested that the recordings be maintained securely at the respective assistant returning officer offices.
The 13th parliamentary election and referendum were held on February 12 at 42,659 polling stations in 299 of the country’s 300 constituencies, with about 90 percent of stations under CC camera surveillance.
On February 13, the EC published a gazette listing 297 elected MPs. Results for Chattogram-2 and Chattogram-4 were withheld by court order, while the Sherpur-3 election had been earlier cancelled due to the death of a candidate.
In the election, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) won 209 parliamentary seats, while Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami secured 68.
Other winners included Jatiya Nagorik Party with six seats, independents seven, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish two, Islami Andolan Bangladesh one, Bangladesh Jatiya Party one, Ganaodhikar Parishad one, Ganasamhati Andolan one and Khelafat Majlish one seat.
Overall, the BNP-led alliance secured a total of 212 constituencies, while the Jamaat-led alliance won 77 constituencies.
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