Comilla city polls today [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Comilla city polls today

Local March 30, 2017

All set to hold polling in the elections to Comilla City Corporation today amid doubt about its freeness and fairness while fear of extremist attack has griped city dwellers after the police cordoned off a suspected den of extremists at Kotbari Wednesday evening.
Chief election commissioner KM Nurul Huda told New Age that the commission talked to the law enforcement agencies who assured him that no operation would be conducted in the building before the conclusion of the polling.
‘The move of the police to identify an suspected den of extremists at Kotbari several hours before the polls may prevent possible attack in the polling area,’ he added.
He, however, urged the city people to exercise their voting rights avoiding all kinds of threat.
The Election Commission already completed all necessary preparations for the
polls amid apprehensions of violence with all 103 polling stations being identified as risky by intelligence agencies, said returning officer Raquib Uddin Mandal.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party also submitted a list of 43 polling stations as more vulnerable ones.
Comilla superintendent of police Md Shah Abid Hossain said that they were prepared to tackle all kinds of violence.
Commission officials, whoever, said that the commission transferred 19 cops of Comilla sadar south police station on allegation of involvement in violation of electoral code of conduct.
They said that the commission had deployed 3,836 members of law enforcement agencies, including the police, Border Guard Bangladesh, Rapid Action Battalion, Coast Guard and Ansar to maintain law and order.
The commission already distributed elections materials to the presiding officers of 103 polling stations and members of law enforcing agencies were deployed at the polling stations.
Earlier, 24 platoons of border guards were deployed to act as striking force in the polling area until Friday.
Four mayoral candidates – incumbent city mayor Monirul Haque Sakku from BNP, Anjum Sultana Sima from the ruling Awami League, Shirin Akhter from Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal faction led by Rob and independent candidate Mamunur Rashid – are contesting the polls.
Besides, 114 people are contesting for 27 positions of general councillors and 40 for 9 positions of councillors reserved for women.
According to the commission, about 2.07 lakh voters – 1,02,447 males and 1,05,119 females – have enrolled to cast their votes.
The polling would begin at 8:00am and continue until 4:00pm without break.
The 14-day-long electioneering ended midnight past Tuesday while allegations of breaching electoral code of conduct were reported against the activists of AL mayoral candidate.
Talking to New Age, major mayoral candidates expressed mixed reactions.
BNP candidate Monirul said that the atmosphere in the city was good till Wednesday but he expressed fear of violence during the polling while AL candidate Anjum said that the polling would be held in a free, fair and credible manner as the law enforcers already took all-out preparations for the polls.
Monirul also claimed that he would secure majority votes if the polling was free and fair. He believed that the people of the city would vote for him to finish his ‘unfinished development works to make the city a model one while his arch rival Anjum was very confident about her victory.
Monirul alleged that the possible polling agents were facing police harassment and the ruling party activists were warning them to not appear in the polling stations.
The first election to the city corporation was held on January 5, 2012, when Monirul won the race defeating ruling AL-backed candidate Afzal Khan, also the father of his running contestant Anjum.